A four year old girl died after her mother's concerns about meningitis were "repeatedly dismissed" by medical staff, the High Court has been told.
The young girl died later from sepsis, with Children's Health Ireland (CHI) issuing an apology for failures in the care provided to her, just hours after she was taken to Tallaght University Hospital.
This comes after the girl's mother had noticed a rash on her daughter on 12 February 2018, according to lawyers for the family.
Speaking in court, Senior Counsel, Jeremy Maher said that the mother had raised concerns of meningitis, but was repeatedly dismissed and her daughter was later diagnosed with a respiratory tract infection, RTÉ reported.
Following this, the young girl's condition deteriorated, before she was transferred to another hospital for urgent assessment. However, attempts to treat her for meningitis were unsuccessful, and she later died in the early hours of February 13 from meningococcal sepsis.
An expert witness for the family had claimed there were multiple warning signs pointing to the child's illness, while Mr Maher stated that if protocol had been followed around sepsis and meningitis, the young girl would not have died.
It was claimed in the High Court that there was several failures by the medical staff, including a failure to recognise the girl's physical, and clinical indicators of sepsis or meningococcaemia, as well as a failure to have any regard to concerns expressed by the child's mother that she may have had meningitis.
It was said in court that she was not diagnosed in time, and there was a failure to ensure proper monitoring of her condition.
A letter of apology was read out in court by Senior Counsel Conor Halpin, with CHI offering sincere apologies to the young girl's parents following the tragic death of their daughter. This apology was read out of the High Court as the girl's parents settled their legal action over her death.
"Children's Health Ireland would like to sincerely apologise for the failures in the care provided to her and to confirm that it is committed to learning from her death", it said.
The letter was signed by Chief Executive, Lucy Nugent, and went on to say it acknowledges and is profoundly sorry for "the ongoing distress that this has caused to you and your family and we extend our deepest condolences".
The details over the settlement reached were not disclosed in court, while Mr Justice Paul Coffey extended his deepest sympathies to the child's family.
