Agency Failures Led to Teen’s Death at Hospital

Ruth Szymankiewicz, a 14-year-old with an eating disorder requiring constant observation due to recent self-harm, died after being left unsupervised for about 15 minutes at Huntercombe Hospital in Berkshire. The responsible care worker, hired through an agency under the false name Ebo Acheampong with stolen identity documents, had only a day-and-a-half of mostly online training and no prior hospital experience. On his first and only shift, he failed to maintain required one-to-one supervision and left without handing Ruth over to another staff member, as shown by CCTV. Ruth was found unconscious after the unsupervised period, suffered a brain injury from lack of oxygen, and died two days later. The worker immediately fled the UK to Ghana and has not been located. The inquest criticized both the hospital’s and agency’s hiring and supervision practices, highlighting systemic failures that allowed an unqualified individual to care for high-risk patients.