A care worker employed under a false name fled to Ghana after a 14-year-old girl died on his watch, an inquest in the United Kingdom has heard.
Ruth Szymankiewicz, who had an eating disorder, died after being left alone at a mental health hospital in Berkshire in February 2022.
She had been placed under strict one-to-one supervision after she self-harmed 10 days before her death at Huntercombe Hospital, in Taplow.
On February 12, 2022, the member of staff responsible for watching her – a man then known as Ebo Acheampong – failed to maintain the constant supervision plan, Buckinghamshire coroner’s court was told.
It later emerged that Mr Acheampong had been using false identity documents and was hired by the hospital under a false name.
“The evidence showed he had been employed through an agency, Platinum, who checked his identity documents, and they even trained him by putting him through a day-and-a-half course,” the coroner Ian Wade KC told inquest jurors.
“It appears that these particular processes were the norm and were sufficient to enable a hospital to employ this person.
“But on Feb 12, he did not keep Ruth under a constant watch. Some time around 8pm, this man ended his shift without knowing where she was and without making sure that he handed her over to another member of staff to continue the one-to-one care regime. He simply left.”
‘He let her down’
Ms Szymankiewicz was left unsupervised for a period of 15 minutes, during which she was able to asphyxiate herself, the coroner said.
Acheampong never returned to work at Huntercombe Hospital, jurors were told. “It seems that he learned what happened that evening,” said Mr Wade.
Police launched an investigation and found Acheampong had gone to Heathrow and boarded a plane to Ghana, “never to be seen again”, the coroner said. “You will not hear from that man, and he let Ruth down,” he told jurors.
A post-mortem examination carried out by the Home Office later determined the preliminary cause of death to be “hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy”, a type of brain damage from a lack of oxygen.
The court further heard that Huntercombe Hospital had been inspected twice by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) prior to the incident. “The CQC had not reported favourably on Huntercombe,” the coroner told the inquest.
Active Care Group, which owned Huntercombe at the time of Ms Szymankiewicz’s death, has since closed the facility.
The inquest continues.
Source: graphic.com.gh
