Delay in Gp’s Referral the Reason Behind a Murder-Suicide

In a shocking incident, a mother has killed herself after stabbing her five-year-old and 20-month-old children to death. Marta Galikowska knifed her daughters in the neck before slashing her own throat.

This murder-suicide has taken place at Staffordshire, the UK on October 12 last year. Her husband Marcin, 28, discovered their bodies at the family's semi-detached property in Standfield, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

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‘Delay in GP’s referral to mental health workers about a mother whose mental health deteriorated after assuming that her child had cancer led to a murder-suicide of three. ’

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Now, a serious case review has reported that the delay in her GP’s referral to mental health workers had been the reason for the deaths.

Mrs Galikowska had wrongly believed that her five-year-old Maja had cancer after doctors found a lump in her neck. So, her worries deepened about this issue and led to suicidal thoughts.

The 27-year-old mother visited her GP on Oct 3 and explained about her suicidal thoughts. The doctor told her that he will refer her to the mental health workers and they will treat her.

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But the health workers did not visit her till Oct 5. After that, a follow-up call was made on October 6 and a surprise visit on October 7. They told that the mother's mental health have not deteriorated and closed the case just two days later.

The review criticized the "extremely concerning" delay between the GP's referral and the visit from mental health workers.It concluded that a referral should have been made as emergency and the case would then have been "treated correctly" as a child protection investigation.

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The report added, "During the period under review, Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire's front door team for all mental health services was not working effectively and there is evidence that in some aspects this is still the case."

Source-Medindia

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