It’s eight years ago, today, Sally, since your entirely preventable death. Neither the intensity of our love for you nor the pain of losing you diminishes with the passage of time. We live with so many happy memories of much of our time together juxtaposed against the excruciating pain of living without you. The price of love is measured by the cavernous hole left in our lives by your untimely death.
Contrary to popular, convenient, but ill-informed myth, time does not facilitate “healing”, “getting over it” or “moving on”. Parents avoidably bereaved at the hands of the State due to clinical negligence and neglect have to cope with the enormity of their loss together with the brutal process of attempting to hold those responsible to account. The emotional and financial cost of this wreaks havoc with already shattered lives.
You deserved so much better, Sally. The abject cruelty with which you were treated by those charged with your care will haunt us forever. The continuous fight for truth, accountability and justice should never have been necessary but for the unconscionable behaviour of those individuals and organisations who have put reputational damage above integrity, truth and justice.
In December 2021 the High Court granted our application for the quashing of your original inquest and the ordering of a fresh one on the grounds of the deliberate withholding of relevant information from the original inquest by staff from Humber NHSFT. In January 2022, following a 12-day hearing, the Nursing and Midwifery Council made a Striking Off Order against one of the two Crisis Nurses from Humber Trust whose actions were causal in your death.
It is hard to believe that eight years on we are waiting for a fresh inquest. The inhumane treatment you experienced in your final hours can never be assuaged. The absence of integrity, truth, accountability and justice leaves an indelible stain on those responsible for your death and all those working in the Trust whose default position, following catastrophic failure, is deny, delay, defend, deceive.
We are thinking of you today, Sally, as always. You are forever in our hearts.
Justice for Sally 