A teenage girl who suffered from anorexia killed herself just days after being released from a psychiatric hospital — but her family weren’t warned she was a suicide risk.
The lack of support given to Pippa McManus and her worried parents partly contributed to her death, a coroner’s court jury found yesterday.
The 15-year-old, who weighed 56 pounds when she was admitted to a mental health facility in September 2014, died after stepping in front of a train five days after she was released in December 2015.
She wrote several farewell letters to friends and family. One note described how she wanted to “grow up and have a life, but I don’t have one.”
“I cannot fight anorexia any more than I have done. I have tried so very hard, but it has won me,” she wrote.
She left the family home after a row and walked to a train station in Stockport, Greater Manchester, where she killed herself.
Her death was found to be suicide — but the jury slammed the discharge care plan as inadequate and added there was not enough communication about Pippa’s risk of killing herself.
Pippa’s devastated mum Marie described her daughter’s illness as a “nightmare.”
“Effective treatment is needed more quickly and if this had been available to our beautiful daughter, maybe she would still be alive today,” she said, adding that the family had been “let down by everybody.”
Pippa, who was affectionately known as “Pip”, had one of the most severe cases of anorexia the hospital had ever seen, Stockport Coroner’s Court heard.
“Our heartfelt sympathies are with Pip’s family and we will now carefully consider the findings of the jury,” said Paula Stanford, the director of the mental health facility where Pippa stayed.
