A NEWLY qualified nurse took her own life seven weeks after treating child victims of the Manchester Arena bomb attack, an inquest heard.
Clara Malagon was on duty on the night of the atrocity and witnessed the horrific injuries inflicted in the blast.
Twenty-two people were killed when Salman Abedi detonated a suicide device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on May 22, 2017.
Her father, Dr Ignacio Malagon, wept as he told the inquest: ‘It was traumatic for her. I rang and said, “Are you OK?” She said, “Yeah dad, it’s really tough, some of the kids didn’t make it”.’ Ms Malagon later underwent a debriefing with senior doctors.
Trauma: The nurse had been on duty on the night of the Manchester Arena bombing and treated some of the children who died PICS: DANNY RYAN/CAVENDISH
Dr Malagon, a consultant anaesthetist at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Hospital, said his daughter, 22, had suffered with depression. The critical care nurse at Manchester Royal Infirmary told him in January 2017: ‘Dad I need help.’
She sought counselling and ‘when stressed’ would talk to her father, the inquest heard. In the weeks before her death ‘there were no such conversations’, Dr Malagon added. Her GP, Dr Gill Aitken, told the inquest Ms Malagon had felt ‘low and apathetic’, adding: ‘I believe this was work related.’ Ms Malagon was found dead in her flat in Manchester city centre in July last year.
Coroner Andrew Bridgman, recording a verdict of suicide, said the Arena bombing ‘clearly had some effect on her’, but there was ‘no specific reference to the trauma that night’. He added: ‘Clara did intend to take her life but this inquest cannot answer why. It’s a real tragedy.’
