Martha Mills fell off her bike during a family holiday in Wales in 2021, damaging her pancreas and requiring hospital treatment. The 13-year-old boy was taken to King’s College Hospital in London because her condition was too serious for local hospitals to treat.
The doctors at King’s, one of the UK’s leading teaching hospitals, were a reassuring presence. The injuries were serious but treatable, and Martha was expected to make a full recovery and return to school within a few weeks.
However, as a mother, Merope Mills To tell Nosheen IqbalBy the end of the summer, Martha died after a series of shocking mistakes in her treatment. Doctors treating her Martha told Merope it was “just a common infection” and, despite her parents’ vocal concerns, they focused her treatment on her. He was not moved to the treatment room. She went into septic shock and died shortly after her bank holiday weekend. The inquest into her death heard that if consultants had made the decision to move her to intensive care sooner, she probably would have survived.
Today, the NHS announced that Martha’s Rules will be introduced in more than 100 hospitals in England from April, following a campaign by Ms Merope and her husband Paul Ratey. This will allow patients and their families to seek urgent medical attention from senior doctors at the same hospital if their condition deteriorates rapidly and they feel their concerns are not being listened to. .
Photo: Mills/Latey Family Photo/PA
