Mum: "Daughter's Suicide Cries Were Ignored"

A grieving mother believes her 13-year-old daughter, Ella Louise Murray, could have been saved if mental health professionals had taken her urgent pleas for help more seriously. Ella repeatedly expressed suicidal thoughts to school staff and a pediatric nurse, even stating she would end her life if sent home. Despite these clear warnings, she was assessed as a 'medium risk' by a mental health nurse and provided with a home treatment plan.

During a subsequent home visit, Ella reiterated her suicidal ideations and desire for hospital admission, yet she was not deemed to meet the criteria for immediate care. Tragically, she attempted suicide shortly after the nurse left and later died in a London hospital. An inquest highlighted critical failures in risk assessment, with the coroner finding it 'incredible' that a child expressing such clear intent was not admitted to a mental health ward or adequately safeguarded.

Two years later, her mother, Natalie, questions how Ella could be seen by three professionals without hospital admission. She emphasizes that a proper risk assessment, which likely would have classified Ella as high risk, might have changed the outcome. Ella's friend, Daisy Sunley, has initiated a government petition advocating for mandatory suicide risk assessments for children in hospital care, spurred by the profound loss of Ella and another friend to suicide. Following Ella's death, a report was submitted to health authorities, prompting a commitment to enhance inter-agency information sharing and escalation protocols.