A patient of the Goodmayes Hospital, Karis Braithwaite, 24, from Dagenham has killed herself just few hours after she was discharged from the hospital.
An investigation into her care by staff at the hospital found that the decision to send her home after a 27 minute assessment was ‘flawed’.
Karis’ stepfather Mark has now criticised the North East London Foundation Trust and said he believes she would still be alive today if NHS staff had admitted her.
Another death occurred in similar circumstances in 2016 after Peter Daniel Usher was discharged from the same hospital hours after a suicide attempt. His body was found near a school shortly after.
Mark told The Mirror: ‘We were absolutely devastated to lose Karis, she was an amazing person.
‘Our feelings are compounded by grief as we learnt of the ways in which Karis could still be alive today.’
An inquest heard that hospital staff were told that Karis had ‘an active plan of suicide’ and but were not ‘receptive’ to receiving a handover from the paramedics which stressed their concerns about Karis.
She was admitted to hospital and assessed the next day. During the 27-minute assessment she told staff she was no longer suicidal but wished that her previous attempt had been successful.
Staff did not see key information from her records and didn’t know the full details of what had happened the day before.
She was discharged at 2.30pm and instead of being taken home in a taxi with a member of hospital staff she caught two buses to Goodmayes Station, where she took her life at 3.28pm.
Mark said: ‘I had no idea about any of the failures, all I knew that she’d died. It’s a terrible nightmare.’
The family made a formal complaint to the North East London Foundation NHS Trust.
A report found that Karis ‘showed clear and unequivocal evidence of suicidal behaviour of the highest risk’ and that ‘the decision to discharge Karis so soon after the incident was not based on reliable information.’
A trust spokesman told The Mirror: ‘We have offered our sincere condolences to Karis’ family and friends following the tragic death of Karis.
‘We are now in the process of putting the coroner’s recommended actions in place and it would not be appropriate for us to comment further at this stage, in view of an ongoing legal claim.’
