Emergency crews 'felt physically sick' when seeing 'shocking' conditions where 22-stone teen died

Emergency crews ‘felt physically sick’ when seeing ‘shocking’ conditions where 22-stone teen died

Jan 19, 2023

A disabled teenage girl who died after becoming morbidly obese was living in “shocking” conditions that made emergency responders “feel physically sick”, a court has heard.

Kaylea Titford, 16, weighed more than 22 stone when she was found dead by paramedics at her home in Powys, Wales, in October 2020.

Her mother, Sarah Lloyd-Jones, 39, has admitted manslaughter by gross negligence, while her father Alun Titford, 45, is on trial at Mold Crown Court after denying the same charge.

The court heard the initial 999 call, made by Kaylea’s grandmother, saying that Kaylea was “cold”, and the family were “unable to wake her”.

In a follow-up call from ambulance control, Kaylea’s father, Alun Titford, can be heard saying his daughter was “too big to move”, when asked by the 999 controller to position her on to her side.

Kaylea, who had spina bifida and needed to use a wheelchair, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Attending paramedics told the jury that her room was “dirty”, with several soiled incontinence pads on Kaylea’s mattress, on the floor and wrapped around her legs.

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Her bed was surrounded by “junk food cartons”, urine-filled plastic milk cartons and that her en-suite bathroom had faeces on the floor, the court heard.

Prosecutors say Kaylea’s parents “seriously neglected” their daughter, with a pathologist’s report concluding the teenager’s cause of death as “inflammation and infection in extensive areas of ulceration arising from obesity and its complications, and immobility in a girl with spina bifida and hydrocephalus”.

The jury heard that when paramedics moved Kaylea’s duvet a smell of “rotting flesh” filled the room.

Paramedic Gareth Evans told the court the smell made him “retch” and he believed it was from a “putrification of sorts”.

Two police officers, also in attendance, told the jury they “felt physically sick” at the smell, and saw “live maggots wriggling” on the mattress of Kaylea’s bed once her body had been moved.

“It was a shocking situation to see someone in”, officer David Wilkinson, told the court. “I didn’t want to see what I saw.”

The trial continues.

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