It was impossible to change the mind of child safety staff after they had decided to send Elizabeth Struhs home with her parents despite some of her doctors’ concerns, a police officer has told a coronial inquest into the young girl’s death.
Child safety staff decided in 2019 that it would be “more detrimental” to not return Elizabeth, aged six at the time, to her Toowoomba home upon her discharge from hospital after suffering a coma due to diabetic ketoacidosis, a Queensland coroner heard.
Elizabeth died at home on 7 January 2022 after her parents withdrew the insulin she needed to survive type 1 diabetes. Her parents were members of a religious sect known as the Saints. The sect did not believe in medicine, and believed Elizabeth would be miraculously healed of her illness or raised from the dead, the inquest heard.
All 14 adult members of the sect were convicted of Elizabeth’s manslaughter last year, including her father, Jason Struhs, and mother, Kerrie Struhs.
The coroner, Ainslie Kirkegaard, heard evidence on Monday from senior doctors at the Queensland children’s hospital who had repeatedly raised the alarm after Elizabeth was hospitalised in a 2019 incident.
Kerrie Struhs told the authorities at the time that she didn’t believe in medicine, and had discouraged Elizabeth’s father from seeking medical assistance and to instead trust in prayer, the coroner heard.
Both parents were convicted of not providing the necessaries of life to Elizabeth as a result of the incident, and Kerrie was jailed.
After Elizabeth was admitted to hospital in 2019, doctors warned that Kerrie might “sabotage” her long-term treatment for the incurable illness, which requires multiple insulin injections a day, if they lived together, the coroner heard.
But the court heard that child safety officers determined she should be returned home to the care of Jason.
The coroner heard evidence about a meeting held by the suspected child abuse and neglect team in which the decision was made. It was led by child safety officers, but involved specialist police and health staff.
Jason was deemed to be able to provide treatment for Elizabeth, such as insulin injections, the court heard.
According to minutes from the meeting, a child safety officer said: “The Queensland children’s hospital is not agreeing with our assessment and have been very vocal about it. I feel that removing her would be more detrimental and we currently have the father stepping up.”
On Tuesday, the court heard from a police officer who had attended the meeting. He told the court he’d served as a child safety liaison for 10 years.
“I learned early on … you couldn’t change child safety’s mind once they had made their decision,” the officer told the court.
“I was never going to change their mind regardless of what I said.”
The officer said the attitude was not confined to a single child safety officer.
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“It was across the board … they had their own structured decision making tools that they used and we had to respect their decision.”
The officer described the approach as “professional courtesy”.
Jason was initially willing to provide insulin to Elizabeth – against the wishes of his wife and their other children – but ceased doing so in 2021 after converting to his wife’s religious beliefs and joining her church group, leading to the child’s death.
A paediatrician specialist in child safety based at the Toowoomba hospital told the inquest on Tuesday that she was “generally happy” with the way child safety approached the case, including returning Elizabeth home.
According to notes taken at a meeting at the time and presented in court, the specialist said Elizabeth would be safe “as long as they are engaging with the hospital and diabetes educator”.
“If they stop showing up or engaging then it is likely we would put in a report as we would need to try and find out why.”
On Monday, two other doctors at the Queensland children’s hospital in Brisbane told the inquest that they were unhappy with the approach, which one labelled “entirely inadequate to address the risk”.
One told the coroner that there had been longstanding poor relations between the Brisbane and Toowoomba hospitals, and their advice was ignored. But the Toowoomba doctor denied the hospitals had a poor relationship.
No witnesses appearing at the inquest can be identified for legal reasons.
The inquest continues.
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