When Carolyn gave birth to Aidan he was premature. Shortly after the birth, they were both discharged from hospital and went home to husband and father, Paul. However, Aidan was soon re-admitted as there was difficulty getting Aidan to feed.
In order to ascertain what was wrong with the baby, various blood tests and a heart scan were undertaken. When the results came back, they showed that Aidan had Down's syndrome and that there were two holes in his heart.
Consequently, Aidan had an operation and afterwards was taken to the intensive care unit where he was placed on a ventilator machine. Whilst Aidan was on the ventilator, the temperature gauge became dislodged which caused the machine to malfunction and so Paul went for help. Aidan required resuscitation and was placed on a heart and lung bypass machine.
A few days later, a member of staff wiped down the bypass machine and accidentally turned it off. Unfortunately, there was a delay in turning the machine back on as staff members did not know how to restart it. During this time, one staff member accidentally turned the machine on in reverse, resulting in de-oxygenated blood being pumped into Aidan's body for a short time until staff could rectify the situation. The machine was eventually restarted after instructions were given over the telephone.
As a result of the incident, Aidan had a stroke and suffered internal bleeding. He sadly died soon after.
Claim Against NHS
Carolyn and Paul pursued a claim against the local NHS Trust and were awarded over £40,000, with the help of medical negligence lawyer, Mandy Luckmann.
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On behalf of the family I offer our heartfelt thanks to yourself and your colleagues for taking on the case and following it through to such a successful conclusion: Kenneth, Sevenoaks
