'Misplaced' medical records at investigation into tragic death of five-year-old girl

A coroner has issued instructions for the location of 'misplaced' medical records of a five-year-old girl who tragically died in December last year. Lila Marsland was only two weeks away from her sixth birthday when she was found unresponsive by her mum Rachael on December 28.

Stockport Coroner's Court has now opened an inquest into Lila's tragic death, with troubling details emerging at a pre-inquest review hearing on Monday November 4 2024. In the hearing it emerged that the original copies of Lila's medical notes in the weeks leading up to her death had been 'misplaced'.

The court heard that there appeared to be no entry on records provided to the court for an assessment at 18.35 on October 8 2023. Other entries on the records indicated that Lila had been prescribed paracetamol, and though she never received the medication this suggested that she had been seen by someone senior enough to order a prescription.

READ MORE: 'I woke up next to my five-year-old and she was gone. We don't know why'

Copies of Lila's records were submitted to the court, with Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust asserting that to their knowledge the records were complete. However, Area Coroner Chris Morris requested that the 'misplaced' original copies of the notes be located.

Representative of Lila's family Mrs Rebecca Sutton told the court: "I make reference to a record made by an advanced nurse practitioner. It's very obviously an important entry.

"This is when the first assessment of Lila was made. We don't have that record still."

She added: "We know Lila was prescribed paracetamol, she didn't receive it but she was prescribed it. She must have been seen by someone who could prescribe."

Mr Morris said: "I'm going to give a formal direction that within six weeks of today the trust will serve a statement from a senior officer setting out details of one; all enquiries to locate Lila's complete records, and two; any further records to be exhibited which have been located as a result of such enquiries."

The area coroner added: "This is a serious matter. These are notes of records, important documents." James Cluvley, who was representing the trust at the hearing, told the court: "We believe this is a complete record because a copy was taken before the original was misplaced."

Mr Morris did not set a date for the inquest to formally begin. However, he did decide that the inquest will have a jury and set aside a period of eight days, an unusually long time.

Speaking previously to the Manchester Evening News, Lila's mum Rachael Mincherton recalled the awful morning that she woke to find Lila unresponsive. She said: “I woke up and she was dead next to me. I rang for an ambulance but she had been dead a few hours.

“They gave her CPR; they arrived within minutes but it was already too late. It’s horrendous. I still can’t believe it’s happened.”

She added: “Because we don’t know what she’s died of, I don’t feel like we can even grieve properly at the moment. We haven’t even been given answers on how she’s died."

Rachael paid tribute to her daughter, calling her 'the nicest child ever'. She said: "She was kind to everyone; I would take her to school and pick her up and she would be hugging all the teachers. It would take her 30 minutes to leave.

“She loved Halloween, dancing, tap, ballet, cheerleading and going to Rainbows. She played out all the time and had a nice group of friends. She just loved life.”