W2C-004 Belfast Telegraph 3-1.txt
Hospital cleared at inquest Oliver McGuckin

Hospital staff were not in any way to blame for the tragic death of a nine-day-old baby boy from west Belfast, an inquest has been told.

Stephen Martin Phillips, of Glenalina Park, died from a very rare infection of the umbilical cord.

Belfast Coroner's Court heard the baby was re-admitted to hospital six days after his mother gave birth by caesarian section on January 18 last.

Witness

Anne Marie Phillips fought back tears as she told how she had repeatedly warned staff at the Royal Maternity Hospital that she "did not like the look of the baby's belly button", which was swollen and discoloured.

Witness said she was told not to worry and that her son would be fine.

Mrs Phillips said the baby did not settle when they were allowed to go home and she expressed continuing concern to a community midwife.

After being taken into the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children on January 24, the infection had spread and Stephen was put on a course of antibiotics.

Died

When doctors told her early on January 26 that the baby was seriously ill and was being taken to theatre for an operation, she asked them: "How come you left it so late?"

Stephen died in his mother's arms early the following day.

Mrs Phillips'sister Bernadette Morrow, told the inquest that the death had left her and her family feeling that Stephen had been neglected.

She said her own two children were delivered at the Royal Maternity Hospital, but she would be afraid to entrust any other children to the hospital's care.

Consultant paediatrician Dr Mark Reid, who carried out a report on the baby's death, said he felt all the doctors involved had given consistent and correct advice.

While he could understand the "natural anger and grief" of the child's parents, he did not believe that medical negligence was a factor in Stephen's death.

Dr Reid added that it would have been difficult to suggest any change in the administration of antibiotics.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Derek Carson said the death was due to an infection of the abdominal wall which had spread from the stump of the umbilical cord.

Sympathy

Dr Carson described it as a "very rare" cause of death and said that neither he nor his colleagues had ever seen cases with such severity of infection of the umbilical cord.

Coroner John Leckey, extending his sympathy to the Phillips family, said many of the questions that had sprung to his mind had been answered.

He believed there was nothing that medical science could have done to have changed the tragic outcome.
