By James Simons-
Hospital staff failed to an eight-year-old boy, after failing to spot his rare but life-threatening illness in the hours following his admission, an inquest has heard.
In addition, Worcestershire Royal Hospital fatally let the boy down on March 2, he was seen at 3.45pm by staff nurse Zara Oliver, who recalled him “looking pale and dehydrated”. She was scheduled to move him to the hospital’s Riverbank children’s ward, she said.
However, the important task was not completed until 6.30pm, in part because it was a “busy” night at A&E and the nurse had two other children to transfer, before Callum, the court heard.
Mr Grimshaw asked Miss Oliver: “It was your workload that meant you couldn’t get him down (to Riverbank)? “You didn’t have the resources?”
She replied: “I had three children to go to the Riverbank (ward) all at the same time.” Callum was discharged from hospital but died less than 24 hours later. The news is a sad reminder of some of the challenges faced by the NHS, in which either incompetence, lack of resources, or sometimes a combination of both leads to tragic outcomes that were preventable.
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Callum Cartlidge, described by his headteacher, Jacqueline Harris as a “polite, friendly and smiley” boy He tragically died after suffering a cardiac arrest on March 3. He was described by headteacher as ”polite, friendly, and smiley”. However, Mrs Harris said there was a stark contrast to the boy she knew before Christmas 2016, and the period leading to his death
She said: “It wasn’t the same child. “He had just got no energy, just ill the whole time – he just never got his spark back.
SYMPTOMS
The young boy had initially seen another GP in Redditch, Worcestershire, on January 13, but the doctor attributed symptoms to most likely have been of post-viral response to recent gastroenteritis”.
On admission to Worcestershire Royal Hospital from the GP, on March 2, he was seen at 3.45pm by staff nurse Zara Oliver, who recalled him “looking pale and dehydrated”.
A trainee doctor had inspected late Callum at Worcestershire Royal Hospital during an admission on March 2, 2017. She suspected “appendicitis”, or “inflamed lymph nodes”, or possibly a “urinary tract infection”.
The first day of a five-day inquest hearing into his death on Monday led to several questions asked by Dr Nicola Goodfellow. Among them was whether she knew of Addison’s Disease, replying: “It’s extremely rare.”
Richard Grimshaw, acting on behalf of the Cartlidge family’s barrister was told there were no signs indicating the linked potentially life-threatening condition known as an adrenal Addisonian crisis.
He asked if she had considered whether Callum’s “hypoglycemic episode”, which had occurred in the hours before his hospital admission, had led her to think there might be some other underlying explanation to Callum’s symptoms. She indicated there was a common and plausible reason for him to have that (hypo-glycaemic episode) because he had been vomiting and not eating.
“There was no reason to suggest he had any other ongoing and underlying condition.”
DETERIORATION
Worcestershire Coroner’s Court heard Callum’s health deteriorated in January 2017, weeks before his death.
On February 28, he was diagnosed with suspected tonsillitis by a nurse at his GP’s surgery and prescribed antibiotics, which seemed to clear it up.
However, his mother, Stacey Cartlidge brought him back to surgery on March 2, reporting he had been “vomiting” and suffering “abdominal pain”, according to his GP.
However, health worker Creena Bullock was on a home visit for Callum’s siblings, when she saw the youngster looking “pale, gaunt and lethargic” and “very thin”.She added that if a doctor’s appointment had not already been booked, “I’d have made an emergency appointment for him that day”.
Arriving at surgery Dr Ikram ul-Haq, of Winyates Health Centre, said: “On examination, he was clinically dehydrated, with sunken eyes, and had a dry mucous membrane.
“He was floppy, very lethargic.”
Callum was running a temperature and had low blood sugar, which was treated with glucose tablets.
“I called 999 as Callum did not look well,” added the doctor.” As is always the case during an inquiry, everyone goes into defense mode in an attempt to escape blame. The blame here lies at the doorstep of the hospital, who messed up in their medical duty. They as experts should have identified the problem and dealt with it appropriately.
