Consultant is struck off for dishonesty over case of girl who died from meningococcal septicaemia

A consultant in emergency medicine has been struck off the UK medical register after a tribunal found he lied repeatedly to cover up his failure to recognise and treat meningococcal septicaemia in a 6 year old girl who later died.

Harsha Rajanna was an specialty trainee year 6 registrar in emergency medicine in February 2017 when he failed to examine Layla-Rose Ermenekli properly. Layla’s mother had brought her to the Royal Oldham Hospital’s emergency department, feeling ill and with a high temperature. Rajanna did not notice a rash on her hip, the tribunal found.

After a brief test of tolerance for liquids, he ordered her discharged, but a concerned paediatric sister called in a junior doctor who noticed a non-blanching rash on the child’s hip, which she recognised as a classic sign …