Misdiagnosis of meningitis as a common virus led to the tragic death of Mia Ginever, a gifted adolescent artist, at Frimley Park Hospital in Camberley, Surrey.
The 19-year-old’s delirium, stiff neck, and terrible headaches all started with persistent red patches on her skin. She was taken to the hospital in a hurry, but it took five hours for the doctors and nurses to evaluate her. Instead of giving her antibiotics or blood tests, the registrar gave her a “sticking plaster” of fluids and pain medication. Eight hours after she arrived at the hospital, a new doctor on duty requested blood testing. It was revealed that she had meningitis B, and antibiotics were administered.
Mia passed away in critical care two days after being put into an induced coma.
Her desire to become an organ donor was something she had already shared with her parents but never imagined donating at such a young age.
She had aspirations of becoming an interior designer and intended to travel in March 2022 in preparation for summer internship applications. She visited the emergency room at Frimley when her headache, pains, and sore throat became worse. Medical professionals informed Mia that her illness was “boring” and that she could go home, but her discomfort intensified, so she and Mel went back to the hospital.
Today, in the Surrey coroner’s court in Woking, an inquest into her death will commence and conclude on Friday. Doctors at the hospital failed to diagnose meningitis and sepsis in Mia correctly, and they also didn’t adhere to the NHS standard of administering antibiotics within one hour of Mia’s second and third hospital admissions. When Phil, Mia’s father, arrived at the hospital, he was startled to see how badly his daughter was being cared for.
In the time after Mia’s passing, the Ginever family has worked tirelessly to increase awareness of the meningitis B vaccination and has donated £70,000 to the Meningitis Research Foundation. The family is being represented at the inquest and in an ongoing negligence action by Deborah Nadel, a legal director at Fieldfisher.
