On 27 December 2023, a 5 year old girl, Lila Marsland, attended Tameside General Hospital with classic symptoms of meningitis, namely headaches, a sore throat, a high heart rate, neck pain and limited neck movement, vomiting, lethargy and was unable to pass urine. Unfortunately, the doctors of Tameside General Hospital did not recognise this and concluded instead that she was suffering from tonsillitis.  

At the time of Lila’s attendance, her mum, Rachael Micherton had asked if this could be meningitis. A number of nurses were concerned this was a possible cause for Lila’s illness but, following tests and a review by a paediatric registrar doctor, they concluded that she was suffering from tonsilitis and discharged her with antibiotics and a throat spray. 8 hours later, she was found to be unresponsive and sadly passed away due to the untreated meningitis.

Meningitis is a rapidly evolving condition that needs treatment as soon as possible and it is so important for this to be recognised quickly. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines confirm that some individuals can present with non-specific symptoms and signs and can cause difficulties to distinguish from other infections with similar symptoms. The NICE guidelines for “Meningitis (bacterial) and meningococcal disease: recognition, diagnosis and management” confirm that clinicians should strongly suspect bacterial meningitis in people with symptoms which include “Fever, headache, neck stillness and altered level of consciousness or cognition”.   

Delay in treatment of meningitis can lead to life changing events because, once it breaches the fluid surrounding the brain, it causes infection and swelling in the brain, which can in turn lead to significant brain damage and death. If you would like to find out more on Meningitis, please see our article World Meningitis Day 2025 – Williamsons Solicitors 

In June 2025, following an inquest into Lila’s death, the Coroner, Chris Morris, wrote to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting confirming ‘The court heard evidence that, over the course of almost 10 hours in hospital, Lila’s history and details of examinations and assessments undertaken were recorded on a mixture of various analogue and digital systems in operation in different parts of the trust, leading to a risk of vital clinical information being lost in the system…I am concerned that this, and other hospitals elsewhere in the country, continue to operate with information being stored and shared between professionals in a fragmented and disjointed way.’  

Coroner Morris further advised his fears around missing medical information including that ‘no medical record appears to exist of the examination of Lila which was undertaken by the locum registrar in paediatrics which resulted in discharge from hospital’ and he has serious concerns for the rest of the country’s hospitals which seemingly ‘continue to operate with information being stored and shared in a fragmented and disjointed way’.  

Issues with patient records being recorded is not something that is unheard of or is uncommon; indeed, earlier in the year, the BBC undertook an investigation where they reported computer problems put patients at risk of harm. NHS computer problems put patients at risk of harm – BBC News 

Coroner Morris also wrote to the Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, requesting a preventing future death report to be prepared following the inquest, highlighting his concerns surrounding the Trust, raising fears about its lacking implementation of the NICE guidance around meningitis. He further commented that he was “concerned that no medical record appears to exist of the examination of Lila which was undertaken by the locum registrar in paediatrics which resulted was discharged from hospital…The absence of this key piece of evidence serves to limit the ability of the trust to derive all possible learning from Lila’s death.’  

Lila’s mum, Rachael Micherton, told Manchester Evening News how Lila’s notes were recorded at the time of her attendance on 27 December 2023, explaining in A&E they were documented on an electrical system however when attending the paediatric A&E, they were all written down on paper. Ms Micherton further advised ‘the medical handover sheet which listed that the advanced nurse practitioner feared meningitis was never given over to the doctor, the doctor never saw that.’ 

Although the information was sent to Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, the Minister of State for Secondary Care, Karin Smyth, who holds the brief for data and technology in the NHS, responded to Coroner Morris in September 2025. The response is noted to be brief, covering how £1.9billion has been invested in digital transformation across the heath and care system, including rolling out electronic patient records (EPR) to NHS Trusts that done have one. She wrote that the information being stored and shared between professionals is being done so in a fragmented and disjointed way. She further confirms that currently, 93 per cent of secondary trusts have an EPR in place, we expect 96 per cent of trusts to have EPRs by March 2026, with the remainder to follow. 

This however does not go the heart of the rest of the issues with Lila’s care, including management of suspected meningitis and paediatric care, and her mum asks the important question of “How’s it going to prevent anything happening? That’s the whole point of the prevention of future death reports.”  

Here at Williamsons solicitors, we have extensive experience in claims surrounding the delay in diagnosis and treatment of meningitis. If you or a family member has experienced similar events, please do not hesitate to contact our Compensation Team on 01482 323697 to discuss.