A teenager with a serious personality disorder died five days after being transferred to a new mental health hospital without warning, an inquest into her death has heard.
Louise Furlong, 19, had been diagnosed with Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD), meaning that any change in her circumstances could be seriously damaging to her mental health.
But on 7 September 2022, she was taken from Bassetlaw Hospital near Worksop to Highbury Hospital in Nottingham, run by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, having had no prior indication that a move would occur when it did.
Her inquest, in front of a jury, opened today by coroner Alexandra Pountney at Nottingham Coroner’s Court, heard evidence that not even the consultant psychiatrist or her multidisciplinary team (MDT) at Bassetlaw had any idea that the transfer was taking place that evening.
Instead, they arrived the next day to find she had moved overnight.
Less than a week later, on 11 September, Louise, who was known as Loulou to her family, was found unconscious in her room with a ligature around her neck.
She died the next day at Queen’s Medical Centre.
A healthcare worker, Sylvia Quaye-Mensah, of Monsall Avenue, Ilkeston, was charged with neglect after her death and pleaded guilty on 18 November last year.
She is expected to be sentenced on 2 March.
Miss Furlong, who had a complex history of mental health issues, was diagnosed with EUPD in 2021 after being sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
She regularly self-harmed and spoke of wanting to end her life.
When she was not in hospital, she lived at the Heathcotes Moorgreen care home in Hucknall, but went missing and made a number of attempts on her life between 2021 and 2022 before being admitted to Highbury Hospital in February of that year.
She was discharged in March, but her mental health was deteriorating to the point where it was no longer suitable for her to live at Moorgreen.
In June 2022, Louise was admitted to Bassetlaw Hospital and detained there under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act.
The inquest heard that Louise had wanted to move to Highbury to be closer to her family and friends, and her mother, Carmel Bushell, said that Louise had been told that a move was on the cards.
But consultant psychiatrist Mohammed Eid, who was in charge of the B2 ward at Bassetlaw Hospital where Louise was staying, told the inquest that “nothing was discussed” with regard to the move on 7 September that year.
The move was solely the jurisdiction of a bed management team at Nottinghamshire Healthcare, he said.
Despite the sudden move, Ms Bushell said that Louise was “excited” on her first day at Highbury.
But two days after she arrived, she absconded, and staff only realised when a friend of Louise’s rang to tell them she was at McDonald’s, the inquest heard.
Ms Bushell told the court in a statement: “I found it very concerning that she was able to leave hospital when she was a high-risk patient.”
Two days after that, on 11 September, Ms Bushell spoke to Louise on a video call, during which her daughter “didn’t look like herself at all” and was “spaced out”.
Ms Bushell rang the ward to tell a nurse, who said she would go and stay with Louise and “watch some films”, and Ms Bushell said this “assured” her.
A few hours later, the pair spoke again on the phone, during which Louise was exhibiting symptoms of hallucinations.
Her mother, who was driving home from work, told Louise to ring her back in 45 minutes.
But this never happened and, that evening, worried, Ms Bushell rang the ward to find there had been an “incident”, although she told the inquest she was not advised of its severity.
A few hours after that, she was told to come to the hospital.
But Louise suffered a cardiac arrest in the early hours of the morning and was pronounced dead.
Ms Bushell said: “I really feel she has been let down by the healthcare system. She was moved so frequently. Every time she seemed to settle somewhere and make friends, she would be moved again with very little or no notice.
“I cannot understand how the incident on 11 September was allowed to happen. She was a high-risk patient who had been admitted to hospital for her own safety.”
The inquest continues.
