Back to newsMother whose daughter died as a result of substandard care settles her action and issues plea to the Minister for Health to examine similar cases.
Posted in News on Thursday, May 22nd, 2025
Leslieann McGeough lost her beautiful and vivacious daughter Abi on the 9th May 2020, as a result of substandard medical care. Abi was only 12 years of age at the time of her death. When Abi passed Leslieann felt strongly there were shortcomings in her daughter’s care yet the hospitals did not provide her with a satisfactory explanation regarding her daughter’s sudden death. Arising from Leslieann’s unanswered questions she instructed Cantillons Solicitors (Marian Fogarty assisted by Ger Falvey) to investigate her daughter’s case on her behalf. Subsequent independent expert reports obtained by this Firm, on Leslieann’s behalf, confirmed Leslieann’s suspicions to be correct i.e. that Abi’s death was avoidable due to substandard medical care. While thankful that the legal process allowed her to get to the truth of what occurred to her daughter she remains concerned that lessons have not been learnt by the hospitals in question in relation to the failings in her daughter’s care. She has called for changes to be made to the health system and has issued a plea to the Minister for Health (outlined below) to ensure no other family has to suffer the same fate.
Read Leslieann’s full statement below and see also media coverage on this case:
Statement of Leslieann McGeough, mother of Abi McGeough.
“My beloved daughter Abi was born on the 12th of November 2007 with hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is managed by putting in a shunt which regulates the spinal fluid to the brain. I was told by the hospital when the shunt was put in to Abi for the first time when she was over two months old (on the 25th of January 2008) to look out for signs of shunt malfunction. The signs I was told to look out for included vomiting and headaches. Throughout Abi’s short life I looked out for these symptoms and indeed when they manifested themselves, I brought her to hospital, and she had a shunt revision in October 2018. However, in December 2019, Abi had persistent problems of the type I had been told to look out for, namely headaches and vomiting. I felt certain that there was a shunt malfunction, but I was reassured by CUH that there was not. I asked for a second opinion, and I was sent to Beaumont Hospital with Abi and, again, I was reassured that there was no shunt malfunction. In early April 2020 despite my urging and a GP referral CUH refused to do a CT scan on Abi at the time of that admission. There was no follow up by either hospital regarding her admissions prior to her death. This failure by both hospitals to check for shunt malfunction, has belatedly been admitted, and it has been further admitted in the legal paperwork by the hospitals that their failure to do so caused my daughter’s death. What should have been a place of care for Abi and where her life could have been saved, has turned out to be a place of horror where Abi’s death was preventable.
I have no doubt that after Abi died, the doctors in both hospitals did know that they had caused her death. I felt that they had caused my daughter’s death. However, no one from the hospitals (CUH and Beaumont) said to me we have investigated Abi’s death; this is what caused her death nor was I offered an apology, counselling or psychological support by the hospitals after Abi died. They say the hardest thing in life is to lose a child but knowing my child died because the doctors did not do their job has filled me with anger.
When my solicitors commenced these proceedings, there was no admission of liability and it was not until the 14th of August 2024 (over 4 years after her death) that a cold admission of liability was sent in legal terms saying, in plain man’s language, that they had caused Abi’s death. It was only through taking these legal proceedings and getting independent expert reports that I was able to find out the truth about what caused her death and also tragically confirming what I thought to be the case that the death of my beautiful daughter Abi was completely avoidable. The doctors who had a duty of care to Abi failed her and it was only for the work of my legal team that I found out it was evident in the scans from as far back as December 2019 that Abi’s shunt was not working. It is all the more difficult for me knowing this given that at the time of the various admissions to these hospitals with Abi prior to her death, not only did the doctors make me feel like I was delusional when I queried whether the shunt was working, most importantly they never listened to Abi.
This is no way to run a health system. It is no way to handle substandard care causing death when these events occur. I wonder how many other Abi’s are out there who have never got answers because they were not in a position to go down the legal route? I have heard of similar issues causing harm to other patients (similar to what occurred with Abi) since Abi’s passing. Why didn’t these hospitals own up to what happened to Abi voluntarily after she died and outside of the legal process? The truth should always come out when these adverse events occur, not for the purposes of punishing people, but rather to prevent such a further tragedy occurring again.
The health system seriously failed Abi causing her death and I am concerned that lessons have not been learnt in her case. I would call on the Minister for Health to ensure that Quality and Patient Safety Managers of hospitals throughout the country investigate adverse outcomes in their hospitals in a proper, fair, timely and impartial way without forcing people like me to go down the legal route to get to the truth. I think it would also be useful for the Minister for Health to look back at say the past three years of cases that have been settled in the Courts and see how many of those were investigated by the hospitals in question and what was the outcome of those investigations. What lessons were learnt by the hospitals? Have any lessons been learnt by the hospitals in Abi’s case? My view is lessons will never be learned if this system continues the way it is currently set up.
Our family tree has been broken never to be repaired. Abi has missed out on so much in life including her much longed for cousins and her many hopes and plans for her future. Every day we grieve for Abi; we feel her loss every minute of every day and will now always have a piece of us missing. I am forever grateful to my amazing parents, family and friends for being right beside me and my Legal Team in Cantillons Solicitors for assisting me in getting justice for Abi.”
Media coverage:
https://www.tiktok.com/@virginmedianews/video/7499895090698063136
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/courtandcrime/arid-41624980.html
https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2025/0502/1510849-child-death-settlement/
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