A twelve-year-old girl died at an NHS unit less than three weeks after being sectioned under the Mental Health Act over an ‘acute psychotic episode’, an inquest heard today.
Before falling ill, Mia Lucas was a ‘fun, bubbly girl with a real joy for life’ who loved singing and drawing.
She had ambitions to either open her own beauty salon or become a vet when she grew up and went horse-riding every weekend.
However she had been suffering ‘intense’ verbal and physical bullying at secondary school, and began hearing voices and becoming ‘irritable and agitated’.
The schoolgirl, from Arnold, Nottinghamshire, was admitted to hospital on New Year’s Eve in 2023 after her family became increasingly concerned about her behaviour.
Mia told ward staff she was ‘seeing scary things’ and was assessed as being a risk to herself and others, an inquest jury was told.
Tragically, just 20 days after being transferred to a specialist children’s psychiatric unit in Sheffield, Mia was ‘found unresponsive’ and died the following day in hospital.
Her mother, Chloe Hayes, 33, sat listening to the evidence with a knitted doll made following Mia’s death from a photograph of her in her riding clothes propped in front of her.
Mia Lucas, 12, went horse-riding every weekend, but in 2023 she was admitted to hospital after she started ‘hearing voices’ and became ‘agitated’, tragically dying less than three weeks after being transferred to a specialist unit for treatment
Mia Lucas was a ‘joyous, happy girl’, according to her mother, but after starting secondary school suffered ‘intense bullying’ which may have played a part in triggering a sudden ‘psychotic episode’, a psychiatrist told an inquest today
Mia pictured with her mother, Chloe Hayes, 33, who attended her inquest today with a knitted doll made from a photograph of her daughter in her horse-riding clothing
Today’s first day of a two-week inquest in Sheffield heard how Mia’s behaviour ‘deteriorated’ before she was admitted to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.
Senior coroner Tanyka Rawden told the 11 jurors they would have to consider the care Mia received and ‘risk assessments around self-harm’.
Mia hadn’t had contact with child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) before her hospital admission.
But she had started getting involved in ‘altercations’ with her mother and ‘attacking’ her, which was unusual, the inquest heard.
She was also ‘hearing voices telling her she needs to go to heaven otherwise something bad will happen to her family members,’ child and adolescent psychiatry consultant Dr Aiesha Bamashmous said.
Mia began trying to force her way past her mother to get hold of kitchen knives to attempt to harm herself.
At one stage she became convinced she had ‘a bug in her ear’ and that there was a machine in her bedroom.
At other times Mia was ‘crying and fearful’, the doctor said.
Mia Lucas, 12, was described by her mother as a ‘fun, bubbly girl with a real joy for life’
Mia, 12, was assessed for physical conditions after her admission to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham on New Year’s Eve in 2023 but all tests came back negative, an inquest heard today
About two weeks before being admitted to hospital she was struck by a viral infection.
On New Year’s Eve her family had expressed ‘concerns about Mia’s behaviour’ which had ‘deteriorated’.
Mia was taken to Queen’s Medical Centre on December 31, 2023 where she began hallucinating about ‘men in black overalls’.
After being admitted, Mia began ‘running around the ward’, attempting to drink hand sanitiser and demanding that her mother proved her own identity, she said.
The schoolgirl also talked about wanting to kill herself and made self-harming attempts.
On January 4 she was detained under the Mental Health Act and diagnosed with an ‘acute psychotic episode’, posing a risk to herself and others.
Mia began saying her eyes were ‘better’ and she was no longer ‘seeing scary things’, Rebecca Keating, clinical director at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, told the hearing.
Ms Keating said her ‘acute’ symptoms were ‘unusual’ given her age.
Tests including an MRI scan were carried out to check for possible physical causes including meningitis, Covid or pneumonia, however these were ruled out.
Due to her age, Mia was transferred to a specialist unit, the Becton Centre, part of Sheffield Children’s Hospital, on January 9.
Staff there reported her pulling her own hair and sending ‘death threats’ via an iPad.
Tragically the CAMHS team were informed on January 29 that Mia had been ‘found unresponsive’, and while she was taken to hospital she was pronounced dead.
Dr Bamashmous said that before her transfer to Sheffield, Mia was not showing symptoms of a neurological condition, such as seizures.
‘All we were seeing was a young person with delusions and hallucinations,’ she added.
The consultant said Mia’s history of suffering ‘intense’ verbal and physical bullying – on top of other changes in her life – could have caused her to become ‘overwhelmed’.
The hearing continues.
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