Baby died “because he fell ill at the weekend”

Baby died “because he fell ill at the weekend”

A recent news report describes how a baby died “ because he fell ill at the weekend”. The 5 month old baby had undergone major heart surgery at a specialist London hospital and had been transferred to a local North London hospital to be monitored. The baby arrived at the local hospital on a Friday evening and the next day his condition began to deteriorate. The baby’s mother said that hours passed without a specialist doctor checking on her son, and described an “air of panic” as nurses frantically searched for a doctor when the baby’s condition deteriorated.

Apparently, an on-call consultant failed to examine the baby when his condition worsened. On Saturday night the baby stopped breathing, he was rushed to theatre but suffered a cardiac arrest and died on Sunday morning, 36 hours after being admitted.

At the inquest an expert witness stated that the Consultant on – call’s decision not to examine the baby was a “failure to provide basic medical care” adding “if he had taken action it would have prevented his death”. The Coroner adjourned the inquest so he could hear further evidence, but expressed concern that “crucial pieces of the jigsaw” at the local hospital were missing because of reduced weekend staffing levels and lack of specialist services.

Here at Attwaters Jameson Hill we are very experienced in dealing with such cases and are able to deal with them with the compassion and sympathy that they require.

For free and confidential legal advice…

Speak to our medico-legal advisers today.
Free advice service.

0800 037 8411
Email Medico-Legal advisers