The parents of Amber Milnes, who died after having her tonsils removed, have praised Enable Law for the firm’s role in ensuring lessons are learned from the tragedy.
Five-year-old Amber, who had cyclical vomiting syndrome (CVS), died at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in April 2023 after an artery ruptured following the operation to take out her tonsils.
Mum and dad Sereta and Lewis Milnes, who live in St Just, Roseland, Cornwall, expressed their appreciation for the legal representation provided by Enable Law partner Mike Bird and the way “he shone a light on where things had gone wrong”.
They turned to Truro-based Mr Bird for help just before an inquest hearing was due to get under way into Amber’s death and he has since supported the family throughout the formal legal investigation.
In a joint statement, Lewis and Sereta said: “Our heads were still spinning when the inquest into Amber’s death was due to start, and we were in such a daze that we were about to go into it alone.
“Thankfully, a relative recommended that we speak to Enable Law because we know that if it were not for Mike Bird many of our questions would have remained unanswered as we were still struggling to process Amber’s death.
“Mike stepped in and immediately took control of the legal proceedings on our behalf and that helped us enormously. He slowed things right down so we could work with health professionals.
“That meant we were able to establish exactly what went wrong in hospital and how lessons could be learned from Amber’s passing to prevent other parents experiencing what we did.
“He persuaded the Coroner to instruct an independent expert, and also instructed experts himself, to ensure the right evidence was provided, and then went through all the evidence with a fine-tooth comb.
“He asked the key questions of the witnesses at the inquest and that made all the difference – and shone a light on where things had gone wrong in terms of the management of Amber’s treatment.
“We regard ourselves as lucky that Mike represented us because he is not only a brilliant lawyer whose determination ensured all the facts come to the fore, but he also has a heart of gold. His caring, compassionate approach made sure we understood every step of the legal process no matter how difficult it was to hear.
“There are no words which will adequately describe how much we miss Amber – or Bam as we called her – and there will always be a void in our family without her, but it is comforting to know lessons have been learned by our loss.
“Thanks to Mike all our questions have been answered by medical professionals and on top of that he not only helped us raise cyclical vomiting syndrome awareness in hospitals but also ensured our experience will help parents when their children are facing surgery.”
During the inquest, it emerged that one of the witnesses had admitted that they did not know enough about Amber’s vomiting syndrome and did not consult colleagues when they should have.
If they had, then the operation would probably have been postponed, and Amber might never have developed the infection which caused the fatal artery rupture.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Andrew Cox, Senior Coroner for Cornwall, stated that Amber died from a known but “very rare complication” following an elective surgical procedure, namely an adenotonsillectomy.
Afterwards, in a statement the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust said: “We fully accept his findings and will make any further changes we can make to improve the care we give to our patients.
“We have involved Amber’s parents in our own review of her care and have left an open invitation with them to meet with a paediatrician. We would wish to support the family in any way we can.”
Dr Merry Kane, Chief Medical Officer at RCHT, added: “We have all learned from Amber’s tragic death. We remain committed to learning and ensuring that every child and family receives the highest standard of care.
“Since Amber’s death we have introduced new guidelines on caring for children with obstructive sleep apnoea following adenotonsillectomy. We will continue to do everything we can to increase awareness of CVS.”
