Hucknall: Two friends, two separate failures, two deaths - same hospital trust

On September 10, 2022, Louise Furlong video-called her friend Sophie Towle and told her how she was feeling.

The pair were on separate wards at Highbury Hospital in Bulwell, where they had first met seven months prior.

The next day, 19-year-old Louise – who was a resident at Heathcotes Moorgreen Care Home in Hucknall when she was not in hospital – was dead.

An inquest in February ruled that she was unlawful killing gross negligence manslaughter by a healthcare worker, who falsified records.

Assessed as being at a ‘very high risk of self-harm’, she was meant to be checked on every 10 minutes, but was left alone for 35 minutes that evening.

When she was finally found, it was too late.

“I think Louise would still be alive if Sophie had been on the ward,” says Sophie’s mum Leisa.

“Because Sophie would have been checking on her.”

The pair had been kept apart because of a perceived ‘suicide pact’.

Louise wasn’t even meant to be at Highbury, but communication errors from those looking after her led to her arriving there five days before her death.

Leisa says that the suicide pact didn’t exist.

She said: “They talked about self-harm and suicide – it was something they had in common.

"But my feeling is that staff misinterpreted that.

"Sophie was only a danger to herself, she never wanted anyone else to be hurt.

“If one of them was feeling bad, the other would support them.

“But if they both felt bad, they wouldn’t contact each other because they knew it wasn’t good for either of them.”

Sophie, who was a year older than Louise, carried on battling her own demons alone, with stints in and out of psychiatric wards.

Eighteen months later, she was dead too, aged 22.

The circumstances of both girls’ deaths have now been scrutinised at inquests in front of juries.

In both cases, it was ruled that neglect played a part.

Two friends, two separate hospitals, two instances of a healthcare worker failing at their job, two deaths – and the same hospital trust.

Louise and Sophie met in February 2022, after Louise was sectioned at Highbury.

At the time, Sophie was there on a long-term stay.

After Louise was discharged, in March, the pair stayed in touch via Facebook Messenger and often spoke on video calls.

Louise’s death in September impacted Sophie ‘horrendously’, says Leisa.

She said: “The day that Louise died, I was on the way to pick Sophie up from the hospital to bring her home for a bit,.

"As I went in, the staff told us she’d had some really bad news and took us into one of the other rooms down the corridor.

"Sophie told me.

“She was in the process of viewing flats as part of her transition period between the hospital and living alone

"It all had to stop, her own self-harm escalated, she just kept saying, ‘I just want to be with Louise, I just want to be with Louise’.

"It was absolutely horrendous.”

The previous day, Sophie had offered Louise some words of reassurance, telling her friend ‘don’t worry, you’re in the right place, they’ll look after you’.

Heartbreakingly, she was wrong.

After Louise’s death, Sophie laid a memorial for Louise, with a picture and a toy giraffe, in the communal gardens at Highbury Hospital.

Leisa said: “The guilt that she (Sophie) felt, she told me she’d never forgive herself for telling her that (Louise was in the right place).”

Sophie and Louise had planned to go and see the Northern Lights together when they both recovered and were discharged.

It never happened.

But on May 11, 2024 – just 13 days before Sophie died – the Northern Lights appeared in Nottingham.

Leisa said: “Sophie video called me crying and saying ‘Louise has sent these for me’.”

Two weeks later, both her and Louise’s lives were over.

A spokesperson for Nottinghamshire Healthcare said: “We must make sure we provide safe and compassionate care for everyone who uses our services every time they need us and we are absolutely committed to improving the experience of people using our services and their families.

“Feedback from people using our services and families is incredibly valuable in helping us to learn and continually improve the care we provide. We urge anyone with concerns about the care provided to a loved one to talk to us directly or contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service.”