Lack of knowledge in medical machinery causes death
Christopher was born prematurely and was re-admitted into hospital not long after birth following difficulty feeding. Blood tests revealed that Christopher was suffering with Down’s syndrome and a later heart scan further revealed two holes in Christopher’s heart.
Christopher underwent surgery and was taken to intensive care where he was placed on a ventilator. He was making good progress. However, problems occurred when the temperature gauge of the ventilator became dislodged causing the machine to malfunction. The parents raised the alarm with a nurse but sadly Christopher required resuscitation and eventually had to be placed on a heart and lung bypass. A few days later this machine was accidentally turned off when a member of staff was wiping it down.
As none of the staff present knew how to restart the bypass machine, it then had to be turned back on by obtaining instructions from someone over the phone. At this point, the machine was accidentally turned on in reverse so that de-oxygenated blood was being pumped into Christopher’s body for a short period before staff could correct the situation. Christopher had a stroke and began to suffer internal bleeding. He died shortly after.
Christopher’s parents pursued a claim against the local NHS Trust and were awarded £43,000 with the assistance of clinical negligence solicitor, Mandy Luckman.