Parents demand inquiry into baby's death

The parents of an 18-month-old girl who died in hospital 11 days after being vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella yesterday filed a report in court demanding an inquiry into her death so that criminal action be taken against those responsible.

In the report, forwarded to the court registrar, Sandro Portelli and Doreen Psaila listed a series of facts, and six trips to St Luke's Hospital, that ended in the death of their daughter Mirielle.

They explained that on July 14, their daughter was given the MMR jab and a nurse told them she might get fever. So when, on July 20 at about 4.30 p.m., the baby ran a fever, her parents gave her the medicine as had been suggested to them.

The following day at 7.10 a.m. they went to the hospital's casualty department and spoke to doctor Robert Cassar. They informed him that since their daughter had been administered the vaccination the baby needed to urinate all the time.

Dr Cassar told them to carry out a urine test and so they went home to collect a sample.

At about 2.30 p.m. they returned to the casualty department with the sample and spoke to a doctor by the name of Barbara who carried out the urine test and told them that nothing seemed to be wrong but that she would send the sample to the laboratory to be 100 per cent sure.

When the test results arrived, the doctor assured them that everything was in order and asked them to give their daughter medicine according to Dr Cassar's instructions.

But in the morning of July 22, the parents realised that their daughter still had fever and that she had a swollen neck. They called the family doctor, Victor Theuma, and he referred them to the hospital.

They immediately went to the paediatric unit at the casualty department where they met Ruth Vella Muskat who told them that these were normal MMR symptoms and she prescribed medicine for the condition.

But, the following day, the child still ran a fever and so, on July 24, they took her back to hospital where she was seen by a doctor by the name of D. Demarco who told them that the girl had an inflamed throat but nothing serious because that was the effect of the MMR.

When they returned home the situation got worse and at about 11 p.m., the toddler started struggling to breath and a rash developed on her stomach and leg.

So they took her back to hospital and explained the situation to Edward Zammit, a doctor, who told them that Mirielle was not out of breath but overtired. The parents explained that she had been sleeping all day. The doctor said this was due to the MMR.

After that, they went home where the situation worsened. They tried going to St James Hospital but did not manage and returned to St Luke's where, following a 40-minute wait, a doctor visited the girl and noticed that she was in a bad state.

Doctor Ryan Farrugia ordered that an X-Ray be taken and the girl was immediately moved to the Disneyland department were several tests were carried out and she was administered oxygen.

Dr Farrugia asked the parents to leave the room and told them the child would be taken to the special care baby unit.

At 8 a.m., on July 25, they were told: "Mirielle has gone near God".

The parents concluded the report by calling on the court registrar to refer the case to the magistrate on duty (Magistrate Antonio Mizzi) so that he would hold an inquiry to establish whether there was room for criminal action to be taken against those responsible. They also asked that the case be treated with urgency because of its serious nature.

Lawyer Edward Zammit Lewis signed the report.