Raychel Ferguson Inquest adjourned amid call for coroner to recuse himself

Raychel Ferguson died in 2001 after having her appendix removed at Altnagelvin Hospital.

Her case was one of those considered by the Hyponatraemia Inquiry, which was critical of many aspects of the care and treatment she had.

At the beginning of Thursday's proceedings at the Inqiuest, counsel for the family said he had an application for the Coroner to recuse himself.

The Coroner asked a series of questions over when the decision had been taken to make this application, and asked the other interested parties when they were made aware of the application and was told this morning.

He asked for the application to be made in writing by 2pm on Thursday with responses by 5pm.

The Coroner said that he would hear oral submissions on Friday morning and give his ruling on Tuesday morning.

The inquest was then adjourned.

Raychel Ferguson died of hyponatraemia - a disturbance caused by a shortage of sodium in the body - in the Royal Victoria Hospital on June 10, 2001, two days after being admitted to Altnagelvin.

In 2018 the chair of the Inquiry into Hyponatraemia-related Deaths, Mr. John O'Hara, concluded that there were a series of shortcomings in the care Raychel received after she was taken Altnagelvin and that these failings allowed for "clinical error and increased the risk of catastrophic outcome".