‘Aoife was our baby, a cool kid. It breaks our hearts – it was a horrible death’

Coroner records verdict of death by medical misadventure in tragic case of Co Clare teenager who died of sepsis in December 2022

'I never got to say goodbye': Aoife Johnston's sister Meagan speaks outside court after the teenager's inquest.

Ralph Riegel

For James and Carol Johnston, Aoife (16) wasn’t just their baby girl – she was their “cool kid”. Aoife was a teenager who was “beautiful inside and out” according to her father, James, and someone who deserved far better than the horrific death she endured at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) in a critically overcrowded emergency department described by consultant Dr James Gray as “a death trap”.

Limerick Coroner John McNamara returned a verdict of death by medical misadventure for Aoife, who died after waiting over 15 hours for the antibiotics that would have saved her life just days before Christmas in 2022.