Ellie-May Clark died after hours of waiting for the doctor to finally agree and see her. The doctor refused to take care of her because she was exactly four minutes late for an emergency appointment, the Daily Mail reports.
Ellie-May, who’s five years old, died of an asthma attack. The doctor she was supposed to see, Dr. Joanne Rowe, denied her the appointment even after she was already informed that the girl could possibly die if she wasn’t taken care of immediately.
Ellie-May’s mother, Shanice, said that they were only four minutes late for the appointment. They were told to go home and just come back the next morning. However, Shanice said that her daughter was suffering from an asthma attack.
When she was put to sleep by her mom, Ellie-May suddenly stopped breathing after an hour. Then, she died after a few minutes.
Dr. Rowe was suspended for six months on full pay after the girl’s death. The incident happened in Newport, South Wales in January 2015. Dr. Rowe, who’s 53 years old, was allowed to “avoid public ‘fitness o practice’ hearings if they accept a proposed sanction” by the General Medical Council.
Protests and former members of the GMC have argued that she should never had gone away with it.
Ellie-May’s grandmother said, “We’ve never even had an apology from Dr. Rowe, who got away with just a slap on the wrist after her clock-watching attitude killed our beautiful girl.”
She continued, “She has been allowed to get on with her life, get another job and forget about it. But we have been left with nothing but pain. Ellie-May has been denied the life she should have had.”
A spokesperson for The Grange Clinic said, “Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Ellie-May. We can confirm that Dr Rowe no longer works within the health board area, and also that we referred the doctor to the GMC who investigated in accordance with their procedures.”
Charlie Massey, chief executive of the GMC, said, “We extend our deepest sympathy to the family for their loss. This doctor has a clear warning against her medical register entry, detailing the shortcomings in the care she provided.”
Massey continued, “It’s clear that in this case the family was not given all of the information necessary to understand why we took the action that we did. We will review our arrangements to make sure those processes work in the best interests of families.”
The investigation of the health board ended up with the conclusion that the “root cause” of Ellie-May’s death was the fact that Dr. Rowe “refused to see her.” The report stated that Dr. Rowe “did not make any clinical assessment of EM before refusing to see her’ and failed to give her mother any ‘safety netting advice.”
The doctor wasn’t found guilty of any charges. It wasn’t reported if Ellie-May’s family would do further actions.
