Doctors who warned that a young girl faced an extreme risk of harm from her mother’s refusal to use medicine were excluded from child safety meetings before the child later died, a coroner has heard.
Elizabeth Rose Struhs, six, was discharged into her parents’ care in August 2019 after recovering from a life-threatening episode of diabetic ketoacidosis. The condition had left her in a coma after her undiagnosed type 1 diabetes went untreated.
A paediatrician told Queensland’s Child Safety Department that Elizabeth was “very lucky not to have died” and warned she could be close to death again if her mother retained responsibility for her care.
“Elizabeth is at extremely high risk of harm in a household where mum has any responsibility of care as she does not believe in medication and refuses to use it,” the paediatrician said in a telephone warning.
The inquest in Brisbane heard that an inter-agency Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect team held meetings while Elizabeth recovered. But a Child Safety officer said she had not spoken directly to the paediatrician who had raised the alarm, although she knew of notes made by a colleague.
After Elizabeth was transferred from the care of Brisbane-based medical staff to a local hospital on August 12, those doctors could attend the safety meetings only if Child Safety invited them.
Minutes after being told about the transfer, the officer emailed colleagues: “I don’t think they actually need to be part of the next SCAN meeting.”
When counsel assisting Simon Hamlin-Harris asked whether that meant the doctors should not be invited despite having asked to attend, the officer replied: “That would not be my decision.”
Two days later, the team approved Elizabeth’s discharge to her parents after her father agreed to manage her diabetes. At the time, he was not thought to share his wife Kerrie’s religious beliefs.
The Brisbane paediatrician nevertheless told Child Safety: “Our team feel Elizabeth can’t be placed in the family household. The pressure on dad around such strong religious beliefs will be difficult.”
By August 2021, Elizabeth’s father had joined his wife’s small congregation, known as The Saints, which had split from Pentecostal Christians. After being baptised in the family’s backyard, he agreed with her to stop giving Elizabeth insulin.
Elizabeth died on January 7, 2022, at the family home near Toowoomba, west of Brisbane. She had been unconscious on the living room floor for days after developing ketoacidosis again, while her parents, her brother and 11 other members of the group prayed around her.
Both of Elizabeth’s parents and the leader of The Saints are now in prison. The eight-day inquest is continuing.
