Aoife Johnston had 'a horrible death...I think people need to know that'

However, while welcoming the verdict and apologies, Aoife’s family said it is “not going to change anything”.

“Aoife is gone and that is what we have to live with now,” Aoife’s mother Carol said.

The family wept as the verdict was delivered on Thursday afternoon by coroner John McNamara at Kilmallock Court house in Limerick, with Aoife’s father James holding his head in his hands.

The coroner said there were “systemic failures, missed opportunities, and breakdown in communication” in the hospital.

The inquest heard that Aoife was assessed as a category two patient and should have been treated within 10 to 15 minutes - antibiotics would have most likely saved her life, the inquest was told.

But by the time the medication was administered, a senior consultant said, “it was too late”.

“Clearly the bottom line is Aoife should have been seen and treated. That is without doubt,” Mr McNamara said.

The four days of evidence heard accounts from doctors of chaotic scenes in the UHL emergency department. Dr Leandri Card told of how she was trying to manage 191 patients on her own on the night Aoife presented, saying that she and nurses were “overwhelmed”.

Aoife’s mother Carol said: “We arrived at the hospital on December 17, and we never thought on December 19 we’d be leaving without Aoife.

“Aoife had, in my words, a horrible death and she suffered the whole night, and I think people need to know that.

“We welcome the verdict and the apologies, but it is not going to change anything, Aoife is gone and that is what we have to live with now”.

Aoife’s father James said: “We went to the hospital to get help and we didn’t receive it – it’s as clear as day what happened.”

Earlier on Thursday, emergency medicine consultant Dr James Gray described the environment at the hospital that weekend as a “death trap”.

He said the teenager had “no chance” and that the emergency department “failed her.”

Dr Gray said it was a “dysfunctional environment”, with “chaotic scenes of overcrowding, patients back-to-back on trollies, double lines in corridors”.

It was akin to “an airplane that is full, passengers on seats, and the aisles are full of patients and every conceivable space is full of patients”, he said.

“You can imagine how that plane would function - it wouldn’t,” Dr Gray said, adding that the hospital “is the most overcrowded hospital in this state today”.

He claimed that UHL was “still a death trap” and that it covers an area of up to 420,000 people.

Reacting to his comments, Aoife's mother Carol Johnston called it “terrifying”.

“I’d be terrified if my other children had to go in,” she said.

“We brought Aoife where we told her she’d be looked after, we told her she was in the best place, to try and get rest and the doctors would be here soon, but they never came.”

On Wednesday, Taoiseach Simon Harris said UHL is funded to be fully staffed but was told that patients and workers did not feel its emergency department was safe.

He said the budget for the hospital was €382m which represented a 44% increase in five years.

“I fully accept there is a very serious situation in UHL. It would be simply not credible to suggest anything to the contrary,” Mr Harris said.

He added that legitimate questions do need to be asked in terms of the level of investment made at the hospital.

When asked about the Taoiseach’s comment, James Johnston said: “Let’s hope it’s not all talk. They need to get on with it and sort it out or more people are going to die in that hospital - 1,000,000%, sort it out”.

"Aoife's gone now so all the apologies and anything they put in place now is not going to change that," Ms Johnston said.

Ms Johnston said Aoife is currently remembered as a girl who died on a trolley, but her parents hope to share the story of the "lovely 16-year-old girl" that she was.

Aoife was a "happy-go-lucky" girl and was "no hassle" to her parents. Mr Johnston said his daughter was his "best friend" and the "coolest kid".

Her parents also called for the emergency department to be reopened in Ennis.

Her sister Megan said it "kills me" that "I never got to say goodbye to her".