Mother repeatedly ‘kept
in dark’
about reason for baby’s
death, inquest told
Mother repeatedly ‘kept in dark’ about reason for baby’s death, inquest told
Jedidajah Otte accuses London• Великобритания » География Великобритании » Населенные пункты Великобритании » Города-сити Великобритании » Лондон
• Великобритания » Англия » География англии » Города Англии » Лондон NHS trust of ‘dishonesty’ over three-month-old
Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива’s death and infected baby feed
Denis Campbell Health policy editor
Sat 5 Oct 2024 08.00 BST
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A grieving mother has told an inquest how secretive, evasive and “patronising”
behaviour by NHS staff was “traumatic” and led to her spending years seeking
the truth about her daughter’s death.
Jedidajah Otte told how she encountered a “stubborn refusal” by doctors and
nurses at St Thomas’ hospital in London• Великобритания » География Великобритании » Населенные пункты Великобритании » Города-сити Великобритании » Лондон
• Великобритания » Англия » География англии » Города Англии » Лондон to tell her what was happening with
three-month-old Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива’s health.
The hospital insisted for 10 years that Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива died of natural causes. However,
last month it admitted that her death in January 2014 occurred as a result of
contaminated feed given to her by staff, which led to her developing a deadly
infection.
Otte, who is a Guardian journalist, also accused Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS
trust (GSTT), which runs the hospital, of “dishonesty”, a “lack of
transparency” and “misleading” her about the outbreak of Bacillus• Биология » Микробиология » Бактериология » Бактерии » Бацилла (форма) cereus , a
food-borne bacteria• Биология » Микробиология » Бактериология » Бактерии in the baby feed, which caused Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива’s death.
Otte also alleged that she was “repeatedly kept in the dark” about why her
daughter’s health suddenly collapsed, “discouraged” from making inquiries and
“told off” for looking at Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива’s medical notes in her desire to understand
her condition.
Jedidajah Otte with Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива’s twin sister in 2015. Photograph: Maria Moya
GSTT has denied being “dishonest” towards Otte. Two senior doctors from St
Thomas’ who treated Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива have told the inquest there was no “cover-up” of the
reasons why she lost her life.
However, one of the doctors, the consultant neonatologist Dr Grenville Fox,
who treated Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива until shortly before she died, told the court on 10
September the intravenous parenteral nutrition she had received – which GSTT
prepared – had caused or contributed to her death, despite the trust denying
that for a decade.
Otte has made her claims in three written statements she submitted to the
inquest, at Southwark coroner’s court in London• Великобритания » География Великобритании » Населенные пункты Великобритании » Города-сити Великобритании » Лондон
• Великобритания » Англия » География англии » Города Англии » Лондон. It is examining the death of
three vulnerable premature babies who died in two separate outbreaks of
contaminated feed. They were Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива, and in June 2014 Yousef Al-Kharboush ,
also at St Thomas’, and Oscar Barker at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge.
Otte wrote: “As I felt strongly back then [in 2014], I continue to feel
strongly now that I and Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива’s father were repeatedly kept in the dark about
Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива’s condition, the circumstances of her sudden deterioration and death.
GSTT staff discouraged us repeatedly from making further inquiries and I was
told off on several occasions for having dared to read Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива’s medical notes.”
Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива was one of twin girls whom Otte gave birth to in October 2013.
“Patronising sentences such as: ‘Don’t worry, Mum, baby is poorly but we are
dealing with it’ were part and parcel of the daily updates and discussions
that took place with doctors and nurses … It was primarily these ongoing
attempts by staff to keep us, as parents, only vaguely informed that made the
events we experienced on this [neonatal] unit as traumatic as I will always
remember them.”
Otte added: “It was this stubborn refusal of the medical teams treating both
my daughters to accurately and transparently describe their concerns,
diagnoses and treatments that triggered, in the aftermath of Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива’s death,
many years of anguished, futile attempts of mine and my mother to piece
together what had happened and how my daughter’s death may have been avoided.”
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Hospital where baby died from infected feed had ‘entirely unsafe system’
Read more
She, her daughters’ father and her own parents “were never convinced that her
sudden, extremely traumatic death was ‘natural’ and merely a result of her
prematurity, low birth weight, previous brain injury and abdominal surgery, as
had been stated on the death certificate”, Otte stated.
It is also “truly astonishing” that neither Bacillus• Биология » Микробиология » Бактериология » Бактерии » Бацилла (форма) cereus nor sepsis• Медицина » Эпидемиология » Инфекционные заболевания » Сепсис
• Медицина » Заболевания » Инфекционные заболевания » Сепсис – the
condition it led to, which helped cause Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива’s death – were mentioned on her
death certificate as a cause of death and “absurd” that her neonatal discharge
summary did not reference the sepsis• Медицина » Эпидемиология » Инфекционные заболевания » Сепсис
• Медицина » Заболевания » Инфекционные заболевания » Сепсис, which is also known as blood poisoning,
she added.
In a statement to the inquest responding to Otte’s claims, Fox denied her
allegation of “a wider dishonesty at GSTT regarding the Bacillus• Биология » Микробиология » Бактериология » Бактерии » Бацилла (форма) cereus
outbreak.”
He said: “I take the suggestion that either I, or my GSTT colleagues, have
been dishonest very seriously indeed, and for the record I disagree with this
suggestion.”
Staff did not know Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива had been infected with Bacillus• Биология » Микробиология » Бактериология » Бактерии » Бацилла (форма) cereus when she died
on 2 January 2014 and so did not put it on her death certificate, as a blood
test taken the day before had not yet been analysed, he said.
However, his colleague Dr William Newsholme, GSTT’s head of infectious
diseases• Медицина » Эпидемиология » Инфекционные заболевания » Сепсис
• Медицина » Заболевания » Инфекционные заболевания » Сепсис, told the inquest in a statement that confirmation from the test that
Aviva• Объект организация » Организации по алфавиту » Организации на Av » Авива
• Страхование » Страховые компании » Страховые компании Великобритании » Авива did have bacteria• Биология » Микробиология » Бактериология » Бактерии in her system had arrived several hours before she
died.
The inquest has now finished. Dr Julian Morris, the senior coroner presiding,
will disclose his conclusions at a further hearing on 23 October.
