![\"Eric](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/HCHULVQOWVIOZNUAFNWFAZ6Y3I.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe jurors heard how Mia was suffering from undiagnosed autoimmune encephalitis, which is a swelling of the brain, which would have been the cause of the acute psychosis she was exhibiting.<\/p>\n
This diagnosis only emerged part-way through the nine-day long inquest, after a pathologist revealed she had just received new post-mortem examination test results, provoking shock in the courtroom and tears among Mia\u2019s relatives gathered in the public gallery.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the jury found that the failure to undertake a lumbar puncture at QMC before her transfer to the Becton Centre \u201cpossibly contributed to Mia\u2019s death\u201d.<\/p>\n
The jury also said there was a failure at the Becton Centre to respond adequately to Mia\u2019s risk of self-harm.<\/p>\n
In a statement after the inquest, Mrs Hayes said: \u201cIt has been devastating to listen to how, when she needed specialist healthcare, for the first time in her life, she was so badly let down.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was let down at the Queen\u2019s Medical Centre in Nottingham, who wrongly decided there was no underlying physical cause of her psychosis, and failed to carry out appropriate testing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe they simply dismissed her and looked to pass her onto mental health services as quickly as possible, which led to her transfer to the Becton centre.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs Hayes continued: \u201cHer mental health spiralled deeper out of control there, as she was not being treated for her condition, and the many failings and lack of care meant sadly she wasn\u2019t properly protected from harming herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cMy beautiful little girl has lost her life and I will never forgive the Queen\u2019s Medical Centre or the Becton Centre for failing her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs Hayes said the Becton Centre \u201cproved to be completely unsuitable for her, and one which failed to keep her safe\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI have never believed for a moment that Mia ever wanted to take her own life. She was always a happy, healthy child and had so much to live for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs Hayes said she wanted everyone to know that Mia\u2019s extreme behaviour was only evident in the final few weeks of her life and \u201cfor the other 12 years, she was a beautiful soul who loved life and loved her family, and that\u2019s how we want her to be remembered\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said she was \u201chappy, fun, friendly girl who had so much to live for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The inquest heard how Mia began to began to behave strangely over Christmas 2023 \u2013 including hearing voices and attacking her mother \u2013 and her family became so concerned she was taken by ambulance to QMC on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n
She was found to be experiencing an \u201cacute psychotic episode\u201d and was also sectioned under the Mental Health Act.<\/p>\n
![\"Chloe](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/7UKSJODOGRILXK45H32ST4B3XQ.jpg\")
Chloe Hayes said the Becton Centre \u2018proved to be completely unsuitable\u2019 for her daughter Mia and \u2018failed to keep her safe\u2019 (Family handout\/PA) <\/p>\n
The jury of five women and four men heard how blood tests and an MRI scan were untaken at QMC which were found to be negative and doctors ruled out a physical cause of Mia\u2019s psychosis.<\/p>\n
But doctors at Nottingham decided not to order further tests on brain wave function and spinal fluid, through a lumbar puncture, which may have revealed the autoimmune encephalitis, which is very rare.<\/p>\n
Mia was transferred to the Becton Centre on January 9 and died three weeks later.<\/p>\n
In a narrative conclusion, the jury said: \u201cThe failure to undertake a lumbar puncture at this point (at QMC) meant that potential indicators of autoimmune encephalitis were missed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis possibly contributed to Mia\u2019s death.\u201d<\/p>\n
The jury added that the information passed between QMC and the Becton Centre \u201cprovided an inappropriate level of assurance that organic causes had been ruled out\u201d.<\/p>\n
In relation to the Becton Centre, the jury concluded that: \u201cInsufficiently robust communication and management of risk led to a failure to respond adequately to Mia\u2019s risk of self-harm.\u201d<\/p>\n
The jury also said that a \u201crare presentation of a rare condition\u201d provided \u201cparticularly complex challenges\u201d for diagnosis and care.<\/p>\n
![\"Mia](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2TT3H2M7QZJ3VI4XDMST3MCW3Y.jpg\")
Mia was described as a \u2018fun, friendly and happy\u2019 girl who had \u2018so much to live for\u2019 (Family handout\/PA) <\/p>\n
The jurors found, on the directions of the senior Sheffield coroner Tanyka Rawden, that Mia\u2019s cause of death was \u201ccompression of the neck\u201d, caused by \u201cacute psychosis\u201d, caused by \u201cautoimmune encephalitis\u201d.<\/p>\n
They heard how Mia self-harmed in her three weeks at the Becton Centre, but the coroner said there was not enough evidence for the jury to find staff handovers on January 29 contributed to Mia\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Mrs Rawden said she will be writing to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, along with a number of professional bodies, about her concerns about the lack of national guidance over testing for autoimmune encephalitis.<\/p>\n
She said she was satisfied she did not need to write to Sheffield Children\u2019s Hospital after hearing about a range of changes at the Becton Centre.<\/p>\n
And Mrs Rawden said she would wait six months, to let Nottingham University Hospitals finish its own investigation, before considering a letter to that trust.<\/p>\n
Ms Hayes\u2019s solicitor Amy Rossall, of Hudgell Solicitors, said: \u201cWe\u2019ve heard many comments about lessons being learned as a result of what happened to Mia, and those learnings will hopefully help to avoid other families losing their children to the condition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Manjeet Shehmar, medical director at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), said: \u201cWe accept the coroner\u2019s outcome in court today and apologise to Mia\u2019s family for not identifying autoimmune encephalitis while she was in our care.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile this is an incredibly rare condition and initial tests were negative, we recognise that further testing may have had an impact on her future, for which we are truly sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Jeff Perring, executive medical director at Sheffield Children\u2019s NHS Foundation Trust, said: \u201cWe are deeply sorry for Mia\u2019s death and recognise the profound impact this has had on those who loved her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Perring outlined the changes made at the Becton Centre following a review of Mia\u2019s care and said a CQC inspection in September found it to be \u201csafe and staff there caring and responsive to patient needs\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mother of a 12-year-old girl who took her own life after she was sectioned has said she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[110719,112198,65786,18,135,19,20199,17,110720,103514,110721,112199,112200,1294,112197],"class_list":{"0":"post-203860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-autoimmune-encephalitis","9":"tag-becton-centre","10":"tag-east-midlands","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-inquest","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-mia-lucas","17":"tag-nottingham","18":"tag-queens-medical-centre","19":"tag-sheffield","20":"tag-sheffield-childrens-hospital","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-yorks-humber"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115624347731175268","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Mia](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3ZM4DYWSUVLSDAYQHKMMEY6RRM.jpg\")
Mia Lucas died in the Becton Centre, under Sheffield Children\u2019s NHS Foundation Trust, where she had been detained under the Mental Health Act (Family handout\/PA) <\/p>\n