Inquest reveals doctors' warnings were ignored before child's death

A coroner's inquest in Brisbane has revealed that medical professionals who issued ‘extreme’ warnings regarding the safety of six-year-old Elizabeth Rose Struhs were excluded from critical safety meetings prior to her death.

In 2019, a pediatrician warned Queensland's Child Safety Department that Elizabeth was at ‘extremely high risk of harm’ because her mother, a member of the ‘the Saints’ church group, refused to use medication. The child had previously been hospitalized in a coma due to diabetic ketoacidosis. Despite these warnings, an inter-agency Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect (SCAN) team held meetings where the treating medical staff were not present.

Elizabeth died on January 7, 2022, near Toowoomba, after her parents withheld insulin, causing her to lapse into ketoacidosis. At the time of her death, she had been lying unconscious on her living room floor for several days while family and members of the religious group prayed around her.