Girl Loses Life After Care Worker with Fake ID Leaves Her Unattended and Flees to Ghana

Girl Loses Life After Care Worker with Fake ID Leaves Her Unattended and Flees to Ghana

A 14-year-old girl named Ruth Szymankiewicz died after a care worker with false ID left her unattended at a psychiatric hospital and fled to Ghana. The worker, who used the fake name Ebo Acheampong, was responsible for supervising Ruth, who had an eating disorder and was under strict one-to-one care due to previous self-harming incidents.

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The care worker’s actions were revealed when he told a colleague that he “couldn’t follow” Ruth on the ward, leading to the discovery that the teenager was alone. An inquest into Ruth’s death heard that the hospital was understaffed, with nurses unable to take breaks, and that staff had previously raised concerns about insufficient staffing.

Ruth had been able to shut herself in her bedroom at the hospital’s psychiatric intensive care unit, where she self-harmed on February 12, 2022, and died two days later at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. The care worker had never worked in a psychiatric hospital environment before and fled the UK for Ghana after the incident.

 

A police investigation found that Acheampong had used false identity documents and was hired by a staffing agency under a false name. Active Care Group, which owned the hospital, has since closed the facility. The inquest is ongoing.

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