A mother and her teenage daughter in England were found dead months after the mom, Alphonsine Djiako Leuga, called for help. Now, authorities are looking into why she never received aid, despite going through the appropriate channels. The woman knew she was unwell, and her medical condition impacted her ability to care for her daughter. Sadly, it is likely that the reason she called became the reason she died. Now, the investigation will uncover who messed up and whether they’re responsible for the two deaths.
The bodies of 47-year-old Alphonsine Djiako Leuga and her 18-year-old daughter, Loraine Choulla, were found in their Radford, Nottingham, home on May 21, 2024, according to multiple reports. The women were in their apartment, decomposing for “weeks or months” before the welfare check, the BBC reported.
An inquest into their deaths began on Monday, July 21, 2025. During the inquest, those involved learned that Leuga called for an ambulance on February 2, 2024, the outlet reported. For some reason, that ambulance never came.
“I feel cold and I can’t move,” the woman told the operator. “I need help to my daughter,” she added. The woman was able to give the operator her address, saying that she was in bed. “Would you send an ambulance? Please come, please,” she begged. Then she ended the call.
Loraine Choulla, who had Down syndrome and learning disabilities, was “entirely dependent” on her mother, the inquest heard.
East Midlands Ambulance Service’s head of patient safety Susan Jevons claimed that operators attempted to call Leuga back, but they didn’t get an answer. “The ambulance didn’t go to the address because the emergency medical advisor, thinking it was an abandoned call, closed the call down,” she explained. According to Jevons, that should “never had happened” since they had a record of the woman’s phone number, address, and symptoms.
Emergency services created a “missed opportunity for an ambulance to attend Alphonsine when she requested one,” Jevons stated.
Leuga, who had sickle cell anemia, had been hospitalized with a lower respiratory tract infection days before her death. Due to her need to care for her daughter, she was given a “pragmatic” discharge from the hospital.
Pathologist Dr. Stuart Hamilton said that her cause of death appeared to be pneumonia. He could “not rule out” that Leuga died the same day she called the ambulance. The inquest will also uncover whether she died before her daughter, and if there was a missed opportunity to save the teen.
Hamilton said that Choulla’s stomach and bladder were empty during the autopsy. Her cause of death is “unascertained.” When asked if she could have died of malnutrition or dehydration, Hamilton said “nothing in [his] findings that says any of that would be incorrect.”
The investigation is still going.
