Aoife Johnston’s sisters speak out — ‘We are still just surviving day by day’

The 16-year-old was referred by her GP and should have been treated with the necessary medication within an hour.

Instead, the teenager endured 13 agonising hours on a trolley with her terrified parents James and Carol pleading for antibiotics that could have saved her life.

A report into the circumstances surrounding her horrific death from purulent meningitis was published by retired Chief Justice Frank Clarke in September.

He found that Aoife’s death was almost certainly avoidable.

Speaking for the first time since their sister’s harrowing inquest in April that revealed the circumstances around her death, Meagan Johnston (27) and her sister Kate (25) said “we would gladly have swapped places with her”.

Meagan and Kate paid tribute to their beautiful little sister describing her as “bright, sparkling and funny”.

They said “no one has been held accountable”, with Kate adding: “I would love them to go up to her grave and see the reality of our lives.” 

She said this time of year is particularly difficult for her family.

“She loved Christmas,” said Kate. “She loved going into town on the bus with her friends. We spoiled her so much; she was the heart of the house. Everything around the house now is just Aoife.

“We probably paid for our own presents that Aoife got us, but we didn’t care, we gave her anything that she asked for because we adored her.”

Meagan added: “She was our baby sister, and she had a horrible death. It is so unfair on her.”

Kate said the whole family is still struggling to deal with their grief.

“I miss her texts and all those little things,” she said. “There has been nothing good in our lives since she died.

“You are still waiting for her name to pop up on your phone, I could be driving along the road, and a song would come on and I would start crying.” 

The sisters who were in a Snapchat group together called ‘Keeping up with the Johnstons’ said they prepared Aoife’s remains for her funeral which they found “extremely hard”.

“I did her make-up all the time,” said Kate. “When she passed, the clothes she wore were her Christmas clothes. I did her make-up. We got our little sister ready. She would have hated it if someone randomly did her make-up.” 

Meagan said: “She loved gel nails, her friend made a set for her, it was the exact same as the last ones she wore and I put those on her.

“She was spoiled rotten at Christmas. Even me, as the oldest, loved buying her stuff. She would always ask me to top up her credit and buy her dresses for discos.

“She was 16 and into make-up and beauty, and we got her vouchers for nails and tanning. She kept the buzz in the house going, it was all about her.

“I never cared what she wanted I just got it for her,” she continued.

‘War zone’

At the inquest into Aoife’s death in Limerick Coroner’s Court in April a verdict of “medical misadventure” was returned. One by one, staff on duty that night took the stand to give evidence of overcrowding in the hospital’s emergency department describing it as “chaotic”, “unprecedented” and a “war zone”.

Consultant in medicine Dr James Gray — who was on call over the weekend of her death in 2022 — said it still is the most overcrowded hospital in Ireland and that it is a “death trap”.

The Johnston’s solicitor Damien Tansey SC compared the scenes depicted during the inquest to that of devastated hospitals in Gaza.

The case caused widespread anger after Aoife’s death was blamed on overcrowding — a common feature in most Irish hospitals.

Her sisters said up until the inquest, they had been sheltered from much of the details of that awful night in the emergency department by their parents who tried to protect them from hearing what happened during Aoife’s dying hours.

“We didn’t know half of what Aoife and my parents went through that night,” said Meagan. “The stuff we heard, it was so shocking.” 

At one stage the inquest had to be paused after Meagan left in tears when she spoke up as a member of the hospital staff that night was on the stand and crying over Aoife.

“We have to go home without Aoife every day,” she said as the courtroom fell into silence.

Meagan said she was so overcome with emotion while listening to staff crying over her sister.

I understand they are all sorry and it’s upsetting for them. But this is our life, we go home every day and she’s gone forever and there is no accountability. We will never get over it

Disciplinary action

In September, the HSE said six hospital staff were facing disciplinary action on foot of Frank Clarke’s findings. Earlier this month a High Court dispute over the suspension of the chief clinical director of UHL in the wake of an investigation was settled.

Professor Brian Lenehan will be returning to his position until his contract ends next June and will also participate in a disciplinary process which has been brought against him, the court heard.

He had sought an injunction over a HSE decision to put him on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into alleged serious misconduct relating to Aoife’s death.

“We still don’t know who is facing disciplinary action,” said Kate. “I don’t think any lessons have been learned and I believe it could happen again, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

“We read all the news about the hospital, and I don’t think anything is any different and we don’t know who anyone is, we were not given their names apart from one doctor,” added Meagan.

The sisters recalled the awful night Aoife was admitted to UHL.

Meagan said she was shopping for food when she received the call from her sister in the early hours of Sunday, December 18.

“I went to my nanny’s anniversary mass the night before, and they were in the hospital,” she said. “I missed a few calls from Kate, and I rang her back and she was in hysterics. They said they had to bring Aoife to ICU and they found swelling on her brain.

“I knew it was very out of character for my parents to miss the mass.

I drove to the hospital after Kate’s call, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I didn’t think she was going to die 

Kate said: “I was texting Aoife until 2am when she was in the hospital. She was saying how annoyed she was waiting to be seen. You didn’t think it was that bad when she was texting me.

“Her last message was ‘hi,’ and then I went to sleep. I woke up on Sunday 18th. I knew something was wrong because they didn’t come home. I rang dad and he said, ‘come in’,  he still had hope. I still read back over all of those videos and texts and so does Meagan.” 

Aoife had experienced a headache and vomiting at home that morning. Her parents took her to the GP who was concerned about her condition and sent her to hospital.

She attended the hospital at 5pm on Saturday December 17, 2022, and her first antibiotic was administered at 7.15am on Sunday December 18.

As the family began to gather in the hospital in the early hours of Sunday nobody expected Aoife would pass away.

“When I got there, they were giving her the antibiotic and I thought she is going to be fine as they knew what the problem is,” said Meagan.

“The four of us were in the waiting room in ICU, but when she went past us on the trolley, I’ll never forget it. You could see her all attached to wires.

“Then a nurse came in. She said: ‘We are really worried about Aoife, the swelling on her brain is getting worse’.” 

It was only when a large team of medics came to see the family that the girls knew their sister was dying, said Kate.

We never got to speak to Aoife again. She was being kept alive, but she was gone

Meagan said: “Ten doctors came into the room, my mother was in the corner of the family room about to collapse on the floor. When they all arrived, my mother knew.” 

Kate described how the doctors told them: “There is nothing more we can do for Aoife.” 

The family stood in disbelief as they were told the swelling from the virus was “too bad” on Aoife’s brain.

“They sent the scan to Cork in the hope of transferring her, but she was too long waiting for the antibiotic, and it was just too late,” said Kate.

“They could have 100% done something had she not been left too late. For me, it doesn’t feel like Aoife is gone, it’s too recent and raw. It was unbelievable when they said it. She was the baby.”

Meagan added: “We went to see her and sat with her while she was on life support for a few days.” 

“There was no talking to Aoife, she was gone,” said Kate. “She was just gone, the gorgeous little sister we have. She didn’t want to die, she had plans, she was going to college, she was doing her Leaving Cert.” 

The life support machine was switched off on December 19 at 3.31pm as the Johnston family felt their world crash down around them.

“You could see the rash all over her,” said Meagan. 

We had to watch our little sister dying in a place where we thought she would be safe. How can we ever come to terms with that? It’s like it just gets worse 

Her lungs and kidneys were donated, Meagan said: “There is some comfort in knowing a part of her is alive in two other people and keeping them alive.

“We know Aoife suffered the whole night, we can’t even imagine how or what she was feeling. She had an awful death and there is no peace in that.”

While their hearts are broken, Meagan and Kate don’t want people to forget “beautiful Aoife” and describe her as a determined young woman, with a gentle but mischievous nature.

Meagan said: “I appreciate life more, I try to stay healthy now, by going to the gym and I found a new job, but we didn’t just lose our sister that day, we lost a part of our parents who idolised Aoife, and while we are a strong family, we are still just surviving day by day.”