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| TRAGEDY OF LITTLE BABY ALBIE |
Probe over meningitis death after
hospital discharge
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Devastated: Mother and father Tony Jago, 43, and Sam Johns,
40
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AN inquiry is underway after an eight-month-old baby boy died
of meningitis just hours after he was discharged from hospital,
his parents having been told he was suffering from tonsilitis.
The devastated parents of Albie Jago, who died last Monday, have
lodged an official complaint against University College Hospital
in Bloomsbury – one of the government’s flagship Foundation
Trusts – and the hospital has begun its own investigation.
The parents claim the hospital’s specialist children’s
accident and emergency unit was closed.
The tragedy unfolded when mother Sam Johns, who lives in Bayham
Street in Camden Town, and who has worked as a cashier at the tills
in Marks and Spencer’s on Camden High Street for 15 years,
visited the West End to do her Christmas shopping. She noticed Albie
was looking unwell.
She said: “I noticed that Albie looked very lethargic. He was
clearly ill. I rang my GP but couldn’t get through so I took
him to the hospital.”
But she had to wait 45 minutes in the hospital’s A&E before
seeing a nurse, and another 45 minutes before seeing a doctor.
They were told the specialist children’s A&E – a new
feature of the £450m foundation hospital in Euston Road –
had been closed for a week. The hospital later confirmed this was
because of a lack of specialist staff.
Ms Johns said Albie was finally seen in a room without a bed that
was set up as an eye-testing suite. He was examined by a doctor
currently undergoing postgraduate training in paediatrics.
The family claim Albie was not taken out of his pushchair, nor given
a complete examination.
Ms Johns said: “We had to wait another 40 minutes in this eye-testing
room. They told me there was no cubicle. It didn’t even have
a bed.
“The doctor took swabs from his mouth and took his temperature
– it was about 38.4 C.”
This is slightly higher than normal.
Ms Johns continued: “He did not even take him out of his push-chair
– at no time was my son picked up by any member of the medical
team.
“The doctor said it was tonsillitis and prescribed some Nurofen,
Calpol and penicillin.”
After waiting for another 45 minutes in the in-hospital pharmacy,
Albie’s father, a taxi driver who had rushed to the hospital,
took his family home in his car.
But when the family reached home at 5.30pm Albie started turning
blue.
Ms Johns rang Great Ormond Street Hospital and was told to go to
the Royal Free hospital in Hampstead.
There they were rushed through A&E and met by a specialist team
from Great Ormond Street. But by then it was too late – Albie
died at 7pm.
The hospital’s lead paediatrician Dr Jane Hawdon confirmed
later Albie had died of meningococcal sepsis, rare in adults but
common in young babies, which poisons the blood and can kill within
a few hours.
A spokesperson from St Pancras coroner’s court said the hospital
had issued the baby with a death certificate giving the cause of
death as “sepsis”. He said the baby died from “natural
causes”.
A spokeswoman for the hospital said: “UCLH is very saddened
to hear of the baby’s death and extend our sympathy to his
family. There is a formal investigation being carried out by Dr
Jane Hawdon, the clinical director of paediatrics and women’s
health, to establish the facts.
“Dr Hawdon and another senior paediatrician have met his parents
and will report back to them fully once the investigation is completed.
“The baby was seen by a qualified doctor, who is undergoing
postgraduate training, at present in paediatrics.”
The hospital confirmed there was a separate area in the new A&E
department for children and that it was not open on the day of Albie’s
death, but denied it was to do with funding issues.
The spokesman said: “Sometimes we have not had enough appropriate
nursing staff in A&E to oversee the separate facility and so
children have been seen in the main department by our paediatric
doctors and A&E staff.”
She added: “The Trust has invested significant additional resources
in paediatric services in recent years and plans to continue to
do so, ultimately with a fully segregated paediatric A&E in
phase two of the new hospital building.”
Albie’s funeral takes place today (Thursday) at 1.30pm.
The hearse will leave Pratt Street, Camden Town, at 11.30am and
make its way to St Pancras cemetery in East Finchley. |
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Don't waste your finest on relatives
DO you enjoy or endure Christmas? It isn’t only that we’re
bullied into spending money we haven’t got.
FULL STORY
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