Mum thought 'this can't go on' as girl, 6, died after routine appendix removal

A family was forced to make the "hardest choice" after their daughter months after a routine operation. Ruby Trussler, six, from Harlow, Essex, had her appendix removed in March 2024 but in October complained she had a stomach ache, and vomited.

Her family at first thought it was a normal bug but when her condition worsened she was rushed to A&E at Hospital, Harlow. Doctors realised she had an abdominal adhesion, an obstruction of the bowel caused by the scar tissue from her appendix removal. She tragically never regained consciousness and her family made the heartwrenching decision to switch off her life support.

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Mum Emma Trussler, 45, said: “We thought we couldn’t let her go on like this. It was the hardest thing we’ve ever done.

“They’d tried everything and we thought we couldn’t do this to her anymore. Enough was enough. We had to make that decision.

“The whole family was able to say goodbye to her. It was the hardest thing we’ve ever done. She was the perfect daughter.”

The day after her obstruction was removed it was discovered she had and a blocked artery in her left leg. Her leg was amputated and fears then arose around her right leg and her hands too.

Ruby remained unconscious after the amputation. On October 10, in an attempt to revive her, they opened her stomach to relieve pressure and drain excess fluid.

Though this was achieved, Ruby’s condition continued to worsen as her was varying rapidly, as was her temperature and heart rate, and she was struggling to breathe.

On October 11, Emma and her husband made the painful decision to withdraw her life support. The cause of death was listed as multiple organ failure caused by sepsis. Ruby leaves behind three older half sisters and four-year-old twin brothers.

A page was set up by a friend to raise money for a family trip to Disneyland Paris, which Emma had promised Ruby while she was in hospital. She said: “Ruby’s dream was to go to Disneyland.

“It’s so sad she’ll never go but our whole family is going on her birthday in November this year to remember her. We can’t bring Ruby back, we know that, but we want to raise as much awareness as we can about sepsis to prevent others from going through the same thing.”

Since Ruby’s death, Emma has raised more than £18,000 for Sepsis UK and, in May, she will be attempting the Three Peaks Challenge. An inquest into Ruby’s death will open this week.

Sharon McNally, chief nurse and deputy chief executive at the Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust, said: “We offer our deepest condolences on the sad loss of Ruby and our thoughts continue to be with her family.

“We are unable to comment on individual cases, however, we have fully investigated the circumstances surrounding Ruby’s care and treatment at our hospital and with our partner organisations.

“We are committed to ensuring learning from any incident is part of our focus on continuous improvement.”