A hospital’s safety procedures have been brought into question in the case of a nine-month-old baby who died of blood poisoning the day after being incorrectly diagnosed with a viral infection.
Aleesha Evans would have survived had she not been sent home from the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, South Wales, an inquest into her death from meningococcal septicaemia heard.
Aleesha’s parents had taken her to the hospital on August 9, 2006, suffering from fever, vomiting and a rash.
A senior registrar on duty in the accident and emergency department sent the baby home with Calpol and Nurofen when hospital protocol dictated that she should have been referred to the hospital’s paediatric team, Cardiff Coroner’s Court was told.
Cardiff coroner Mary Hassell said: “If Aleesha had been referred to the paediatric team instead of being discharged, she would have been treated with antibiotics and she would have survived.”
She returned a narrative verdict outlining the facts of the case and said she would write a report in a bid to prevent such an incident happening again.
A subsequent investigation by Gwent Healthcare NHS has led to accident and emergency staff being given more advice on how to deal with sick children.
Copyright Press Association 2008
