Death of 2 year old on Lufthansa transatlantic flight

[dochealth]

Inquest today in Limerick following death of 2yr old Eritrean girl while on 747 over Atlantic on Tue. Medical emergency called but child died 40 mins before touchdown Shannon.

Apparently was part of refugee group going to US but had been in Addis Ababa hospital ? chest infection before journey.

Most unusual for child to die even with pneumonia. What do fellow medics think?
- Undiagnosed congenital cardiac disease?
- Underlying respiratory condition?
- P.E unlikely?

Post mortem results due at coroners court in October but "natural causes" alluded to today.

Curious.... and awful for an already traumatised family

[AMEandPPL]

Agree it is a very sad and tragic situation; also agree it is very unusual for such a young child to die in flight. In older adults there are regular occurrences of deaths in flight, MI's, PE's, CVA's, asthma, aneurysms etc etc.

If she had been treated in hospital prior to departure, makes me wonder if she was still much iller than anyone realised - begging the question of whether she should have been allowed to board in the first place.

Will be very interesting to hear PM result in due course.

[gingernut]

Tragic.

Any chance of getting her notes?

[homonculus]

I certainly hope not Gingernut

It may be of interest to you as to what happened, and the inquest may provide further information. But doctors shouldnt give the impression they can just look at anyone's notes - especially with the introduction of CRS, The only people entitled to the notes are the treating doctors, the coroner and certain other statutory bodies.

[gingernut]

Of course your right. I was under the (?mistaken) impression dochealth was involved in the case.

In which case the notes prior to this girls flight would be essential.

I wasn't advocating that I want the notes. Perhaps we shouldn't pre-judge the case on here.

[AMEandPPL]

<< Perhaps we should pre-judge the case on here. >>

Or perhaps actually we shouldn't . . . . . . . . .

[DX Wombat]

There is always the possibility of meningitis. The child could have appeared reasonably well at the airport terminal but have deteriorated rapidly in flight. To parents and others not familiar with the signs and symptoms of meningitis it is something which could have easily been missed. A grumpy child who then went to sleep may have seemed to be exactly that - a slightly nervous child, frightened of new, puzzling surroundings, who simply dropped off to sleep but was, in fact, unconscious. Not every case of meningitis produces the tell-tale petechial rash, nor is every case caused by meningococcus, there are other, nasty bacteria around. Small children with serious infections may not appear to have a raised temperature, they can often be very cold to touch as their peripheral circulation shuts down. Malaria is also a possibility. RIP

[dochealth]

No, I'm not involved, just concerned and curious

I'll post again when PM results are released....

Dochealth

[dochealth]

Hi all,

I promised update after inquest.... cause of death was bronchial pneumonia but no other contributory factors. Coroner noted she was both underweight and short stature for her age.

The child was very unlucky, given that she had begun treatment before the journey began but the trauma of fleeing Eritrea must have been a factor.

Family now settling in US and the girl is buried nearby. RIP

dochealth

[AMEandPPL]

cause of death was bronchial pneumonia but no other contributory factors. Coroner noted she was both underweight and short stature for her age

Poor little thing . . . . . . never really stood a chance at all, did she ?

I just can't help comparing her short life with my own little grand-daughter . . . . . . . just turned three, here in comfortable leafy Cheshire.

Tears welling up . :sad:. . . . . . isn't this world 'orrible and unfair ?


PS - apologies to the mods if this post isn't directly aviation related.

[Hawk]

Thanks dochealth for getting back to us with the outcome. Poor little mite what a tragedy.

[gingernut]

Thanks for the feedback.

RIP.

Without referring directly to this case, it does highlight the problem of diagnosing serious illness in children.

Most kids, suffer about 7 or 8 feverish illnesses before they are two years old. Most go and see their GP. (Thats an awful lot of consultations).

Sussing out the serious cases isn't always that easy-on the one hand, lots of presentations, on the other hand, the 2nd biggest killer of children is fever. (About 100 a year in the UK).

We're trying to make the process of sifting the wheat from the chaff, a little more scientific.

I'm trying to wade through and disseminate these at the moment... CG47 Feverish illness in young children: Full guideline (http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/index.jsp?action=download&o=30525) - my own practice has now changed as a result.

The science is straightforward, changing the mindset of entrenched clinicians (mostly nurses I'm afraid to say), is a little more challenging.