Maisie Almond, 14, from Manchester, was taken to A&E after she developed persistent stomach pain and her eyes turned yellow – and sadly died just weeks later following a devastating diagnosis
A health warning has been issued after a 14-year-old girl tragically died weeks after getting a tummy ache.
Maisie Almond, 14, from Manchester, was rushed to hospital after the pain didn’t go away and her eyes turned yellow. She was admitted in September 2024 after her parents, Kathryn and Stuart, took her Tameside Hospital’s emergency department.
After a series of tests, during which Maisie’s jaundice worsened, doctors realised the teenager was suffering from acute liver failure and needed a transplant to save her life. She was swiftly placed at the top of the donor list after being admitted to the Children’s Intensive Care ward at Leeds General Infirmary.
On October 1, doctors found a matched donor and Maisie was taken into theatre at around 11pm. Tragically, the teenager died in the early hours of October 2 after she deteriorated further, becoming too poorly to undergo the 12-hour surgery.
Following an inquest into her death, a coroner has issued a prevention of future deaths report.
The report made not of how the wait for donor livers has been extended, meaning it could take up to a week for a suitable donor to be found – even in the most urgent cases. The report concluded: “That delay gives rise to a clear risk that lives will be lost due to the unavailability of suitable donor organs.”
Maisie’s parents were told by senior consultants that she needed a donor liver urgently and that receiving it just a day earlier coukd have changed the outcome.
The couple previously said: “We thought it was just a tummy bug that goes round school and that, after a day off school, she’d be fine. We thought it was probably a run-of-the-mill tummy bug, especially with going back after the holidays.”
“We are utterly devastated by the sudden loss of our beautiful girl Maisie,” mum Kathryn said at the time.
The coroner’s report has been sent to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Director of Organ and Tissue Transplantation at the NHS Blood and Transplant Service.
According to Adrian Farrow, assistant coroner for the area of Greater Manchester South, “no underlying cause could be found” for Maisie’s liver failure. Recipients of the report were urged to take action as Mr Farrow pointed out that a delay in finding suitable donors presented a clear risk of future deaths occurring.
The coroner’s report concluded that Maisie “died from the effects of a rare form of acute liver failure before a suitable donor liver could be found for priority transplantation.”
By the time a suitable donor liver was found, Maisie had “sustained cerebral oedema and other organ damage,” the report added. “This made the prospects of her survival so low that the transplant did not take place.”
The prevention of future deaths report reads: “In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken.”
