Family 'can move forward' after tribunal finds failings in paramedic care following daughter's death

  • Video report by ITV Meridian's Juliette Fletcher

A mother, whose five-year-old daughter died after she collapsed in a school playground in Reading, says their family can finally move forward, after the findings of a conduct tribunal were published.

Lilly-May Page-Bowden suffered a cardiac arrest at Willow Bank School in Woodley in May 2014. A paramedic, who arrived shortly afterwards, decided not to use a potentially life-saving piece of equipment.

Lilly-May died in hospital.

Willow Bank School in Woodley. Credit: ITV Meridian

Her mother Claire says: "I remember her alive in my arms and then she went unconscious. Two off-duty nurses who were parents kept her alive, kept her going. I can remember the paramedic coming out of the ambulance, taking no equipment with her and then she [her daughter] was gone."

Lilly-May died from sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, a form of cardiac arrest. A tribunal was been told the paramedic, Shannon Jacobs, who was first on the scene at Willow Bank School in Woodley decided not to use a defibrillator.

It was a decision that the coroner later said could have cost Lilly-May her life.

Lilly-May's mother Claire now wants to see life-saving equipment in every school. Credit: ITV Meridian

The Health and Care Professions Council concluded there was a serious failing in the expected standard of care. Paramedic Shannon Jacobs was given a caution, which will stay on her record for 5 years.

The tribunal heard it was an isolated case in an otherwise unblemished career.

A year afterwards, balloons were released and a tree planted in her memory. Credit: ITV Meridian

South Central Ambulance Service apologised to the family after the inquest.

It confirmed that Shannon Jacobs now works for a different ambulance service.

Claire hopes that lessons have been learned.

She says: "I feel relieved it's over with. It's been a very tough five and a half years fighting, knowing that something that wasn't right and having to fight for some answers. That final piece is now finished. We can't move on but we can move forward now. We can now think about her life rather than that tragic day and the events that unfolded."

Claire wants to see life-saving equipment in every school to help prevent any more young lives being lost.

Lilly-May died from sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, a form of cardiac arrest.