Hospital Admits to Errors Causing Childs Death

Stoke Mandeville Hospital has admitted to a number of errors they made which resulted in the death of a 4 year old boy, Oliver Blockley. The young child was given a 95% chance of living when admitted to hospital and later died after the NHS trust made 28 mistakes in his care.

Oliver Blockley was admitted to hospital with symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea. He was misdiagnosed with gastroenteritis, an illness that can’t be treated with antibiotics which means he wasn’t given the medicine that would have saved his life.

A blood test should have picked up that Oliver had Strep A, an invasive form of sore throat bacteria. The tests showed he was severely dehydrated and was headed for septic shock yet doctors continued to refuse him antibiotics and fluids. Throughout the night the doctors and nurses failed to identify Olivers unusually fast heartbeat and rapid breathing.

Hours after entering hospital, Oliver went into septic shock and suffered cardiac arrest which led to his death. His mother, Jennifer Blockley, was initially denied information about the chances her son had of surviving if medics had acted sooner. Even after the death nurses continued to tell Ms Blockley that Oliver died due to a stomach bug.

The trust admits that Oliver would have survived if it wasn’t for the negligent care he received while in the hospitals care. They admit he didn’t receive the proper medication, fluids or supervision required.

Anne Eden, chief executive of Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust has said the investigation will be as transparent as possible. A letter of apology has been written to the boys family in which it admits to 28 counts of clinical negligence.

Ms Eden has revealed a number of changes have been made including improving the early warning process for recognising when a child’s condition is deteriorating, improving how they treat gastroenteritis and the use and types of fluids given to patients.

The family’s solicitor Laura Cook, of Darby’s Solicitors, said: “It’s another sad example of the NHS only admitting to mistakes after legal action is taken, putting the family through additional stress at what is already such a traumatic time.”

General PI News Medical Negligence Claims StockslegalJun 7th, 20140 comments