Sponsored by
West Yorkshire boy died after hospital overdose
A five-year-old boy died after he was given a huge overdose of an anti-epilepsy drug at a West Yorkshire hospital.
Bailey Ratcliffe was given seven times too much phenytoin at Dewsbury District Hospital, 2,820mg instead of 400mg.
* Click here to sign up to free news and sport email alerts from your YEP.
His devastated family say they have been further upset by a decision not to prosecute anyone involved in his care.
* Click here to follow the YEP on Twitter.
Mum Carrianne Ratcliffe said: "It has destroyed our lives. It's disgusting."
Bailey, from Dewsbury, was diagnosed with epilepsy aged two. On May 27 last year, he was taken to hospital after suffering several seizures.
His condition deteriorated and he was put on a ventilator. At 5.25pm his heart stopped beating and medics tried in vain for 30 minutes to resuscitate him.
West Yorkshire Police investigated and prosecutors have reviewed the case.
However Bailey's family have been told there is insufficient evidence for a realistic chance of a conviction for manslaughter by gross negligence.
A letter from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) explaining the decision said it was clear Bailey's "sad and most untimely death was caused by the excessive amount of phenytoin to which he had been subjected".
It added: "Errors clearly oc-curred here, with the most lamitous consequences for you and your family."
Alison Storey, reviewing lawyer from the CPS Special Crime Division, told the Yorkshire Evening Post that Bailey's death was tragic and the circumstances around his death were "nothing less than shocking."
"The law sets an extremely high evidential hurdle for bringing charges for this offence as the prosecution must prove that individuals caused the death by grossly breaching their duty of care to the person who died," she said.
"I concluded that it was not possible to prove this to the required standard in this case."
She said while she found one doctor and two nurses breached their duty of care to Bailey, "I did not consider that it would be possible to prove to a jury that they did so 'grossly', that is that they acted with such indifference to the obvious and serious risk to Bailey's life, and in a way which was so far from the standard which could be expected, that their actions became criminal."
But His grandma Tina Gordon, of Batley, said: "I'm very angry and I'm very bitter now. Carrianne is just numb. She's shut off."
She said her daughter, who has two other children aged 14 and 10, had been "destroyed" by Bailey's death and suffered ongoing health problems.
The family are now awaiting his inquest.
Professor Tim Hendra, medical director at the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, offered sincere sympathies and condolences to Bailey's family.
"We are deeply sorry for what happened," he said.
"We immediately carried out a thorough investigation to understand and learn from this tragedy. We took rapid and significant steps to improve our practice.
"This has included a detailed review of all our procedures for administering medications and writing prescriptions. We have also put in place additional training and standards that all our staff must meet. We would like to reassure everyone that we have already taken a range of actions to minimise the risk of this happening again. With the police investigation over, we can now consider whether any further action is necessary."
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Leeds
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
