Seven-week-old child died in hospital after not being given Vitamin …

The parents of a baby who died after medics failed to give him a routine jab have spoken of their devastation. Naomi and Alex Moris-Patto's son William passed away only seven weeks after he was born due to a brain bleed.

An inquest into his death found that William would have survived if he had been given a routine injection of vitamin K, which is needed for blood clotting. It was added that there was "gross failure in medical care amounting to neglect".

The inquest, held in Huntingdon ^[1], heard that William was born premature at 34 weeks on July 27, 2020. Coroner Lorna Skinner KC said as far as Naomi recalled when she asked if he had all the necessary postnatal checks and care, a female member of staff said "yes, everything's been done".

Naomi and Alex Moris-Patto and their son William (Image: Naomi Moris-Patto/SWNS)

William stayed in hospital for two weeks before being discharged with a nasogastric tube. However, he then became unwell overnight on September 11.

His parents, from Chatteris ^[4], rang the NHS ^[5] 111 service and an ambulance was dispatched to take William to Addenbrooke's Hospital ^[6] for surgery. Clinicians "believed the damage to his brain was too great and he would never recover" and he died on September 17.

Naomi said: "The finding that neglect led to his death is devastating. There's no way we can bring William back but we hope this stands to stop this ever happening again.

"It’s hard to summarise how we feel but we were impressed at how thorough the process was. It’s a bit of a relief to have it over with, it’s a mix of emotions."

Alex added: "I think there are still concerns for us, we still think there is a risk for future deaths because of the systematic errors that were at play."

William was born at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge in July 2020 (Image: Naomi Moris-Patto/SWNS)

In a narrative conclusion, Ms Skinner said: "William died of natural causes - a vitamin K deficiency which caused a spontaneous intracranial haemorrhage. His death was contributed to by neglect in that he was not given vitamin K after birth and if he had been, he would not have died."

Cambridge University ^[7] Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has apologised to Naomi and Alex for these failures. It also added that it fully accepted the coroner's findings.

A spokesman said "The trust remains deeply saddened by William's tragic death and wishes to express its sincere condolences and apologies to his family at this difficult time.

"Processes were, and continue to be, constantly reviewed to ensure a similar error cannot be made in the future. If, following further review, the coroner has any concerns, these will be addressed."

References

^{^} Huntingdon (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
^{^} The areas of Cambridgeshire where homes have sold the fastest in the last year (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
^{^} 'No Mill Road MRI' say Cambridge residents worried about 'highly disruptive' noise from cooling plants (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
^{^} Chatteris (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
^{^} NHS (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
^{^} Addenbrooke's Hospital (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
^{^} Cambridge University (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)