Inquest Reveals Girl's Death from Brain Disorder

A 12-year-old girl from Nottingham who died in a psychiatric unit earlier this year suffered from a rare, treatable brain disorder that triggered her severe psychotic episode, new evidence revealed at an inquest this week.

Mia Lucas was found unresponsive in her room at the Becton Centre, a specialist mental health facility at Sheffield Children's Hospital, on January 29, 2024. She was pronounced dead the following day. The inquest into her death, underway at Sheffield Coroners Court since last week, heard on Monday that blood tests confirmed Mia had autoimmune encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that can produce extreme psychiatric symptoms including hallucinations and psychosis.

Pathologist Professor Marta Cohen presented the conclusive results to the jury, stating that the medical cause of death remained compression of the neck. She added, however, that this was due to acute psychosis triggered by the autoimmune encephalitis. The condition, while potentially treatable with immunosuppressive therapies, can be fatal if undiagnosed and is difficult to detect, particularly in children without typical physical signs such as seizures or tremors.