'Not for one minute did we expect to lose her'

A FIVE-WEEK-OLD girl died of a heart condition which was not detected until after she had passed away, a coroner has ruled.

- BY KIT ROBERTS

Esme Atkinson was just over a month old when she was rushed to Stepping Hill Hospital on March 17, 2024, after her mum Ellen Roberts noticed her eye was twitching.

Despite appearing to respond to treatment at the hospital at first, Esme suddenly stopped breathing and died the same day. A post-mortem examination of Esme found that she had a 'ventricular septal defect,' a hole in her heart.

However, despite risk factors in both her mum and her auntie, Esme was not given a scan which could have spotted the condition before it was too late.

Tragically, the scan was not carried out and Esme's mum Ellen and her dad Louis Atkinson were left mourning the baby girl they had welcomed into the world just weeks earlier.