Arena inquest hears about Halewood teenagers final moments

A father begged his teenage daughter to start breathing, as police desperately tried to save her life minutes after the Manchester Arena bombing, the public inquiry heard.

Michael Hurley was beside his daughter Megan, 15, pleading, "Come on Megan, love," as officers gave emergency first aid in the City Room foyer of the Arena.

The youngster was standing just three metres from the suicide bomber at the moment of detonation.

Her injuries were later deemed un-survivable, and she was one of the 22 murdered and hundreds left injured in the terror attack carried out by bomber Salman Abedi and his brother Hashem.

Megan had been at the concert with her brother, Bradley, six years her senior, when they were caught in the blast, at 10.31pm at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on May 22, 2017.

Bradley was seriously injured and not able to get up from the floor but he could see Megan did not appear to be breathing and knew he was "helpless to try to save his sister" the inquiry heard.

Their parents, Michael and Joanne Hurley, from Halewood, Liverpool, were on their way to collect their children after the event when Mr Hurley called his son and he went straight to the City Room himself.

Megan's eyes were closed and she was clearly injured and though there was no damage to her face she was not moving and was unresponsive.

Mr Hurley could not detect a pulse and called out to police to help.

An officer, identified only as F2, crouched down and said, "Give me a sec I think I have got a pulse," and Bradley replied, "Can we do something? Can we get a defibrillator?"

At 11pm officer F2 started cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with another officer, Police Constable Owen Whittell, giving mouth-to-mouth breaths using a mask.

The officers worked in tandem, using the defibrillator in between chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth, with Mr Hurley shouting: "Come on Meg."

Three minutes later Pc Whittell shouted, "Right, stand clear please. Clear!" as the defibrillator was used again before CPR and more breaths were administered.

On body-worn cameras Mr Hurley could be heard shouting again, "Come on Megan love."

Another first aider said Megan had suffered a "catastrophic bleed" and told the officers it was "wasting your time" and advised them to try to treat other injured people.

But Police Sergeant Kam Hare replied: "We are not calling it yet mate. We will do one more."

CPR was given again and Mr Hurley left to try to find his wife.

Shortly after, North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) paramedic Patrick Ennis was called over to assess Megan.

He was told CPR had been given, mouth-to-mouth and the defibrillator used, but Megan was not still breathing.

Mr Ennis replied: "OK, well stop. Unfortunately she's dead."

The officers stood up, Pc Whittell using a T-shirt and officer F2, "clearly upset" using a white jumper to cover Megan up.

Mr Hurley returned less than two minutes later, staying with his daughter in the City Room until 1.02am.

Following a post mortem examination, assessment by blast wave bomb experts and forensic pathology experts all concluded Megan's injuries were "un-survivable" even with advanced medical treatment.

Sir John Saunders, chairman of the inquiry, remarked on the "evocative" portrait photo of Megan, shown on screens at the hearing.

He told her parents it was clear their daughter was a "lovely person" adding: "Everyone here understands why her father was so reluctant to let her go."

The inquiry, sitting in Manchester, is currently looking at how and in what circumstances each of the 22 victims died and to investigate whether any inadequacies in the emergency response contributed to individual deaths and/or if they could have been prevented.