A seven-year-old boy died at the private Portland hospital in London after vital monitoring equipment was switched off, a report has found. James Dwerryhouse suffered brain damage as a result of cardiac arrest after the equipment monitoring his breathing overnight was turned off for almost three hours.
James needed the equipment as he suffered from sleep apnoea, which can cause life-threatening stoppages in breathing. He had numerous health conditions, including requiring feeding through a tube, bowel problems, epilepsy, and hearing and sight impairment. He had gone to the Portland hospital for a routine operation to create a colostomy bag, which was successful. However, a few hours later, he was found unresponsive in his bed at the hospital’s paediatric intensive care unit.
Eight staff were caring for six children overnight when the incident occurred on 25 August last year. The serious incident report by the hospital shows staff took the decision to remove the monitoring equipment at 1.15am without consulting a more senior member of staff. The investigation found failures in record-keeping, including a failure to document observations of James throughout the night. Staff immediately turned off audible alarms when they reconnected James’s monitoring equipment at 3.58am.
The report concluded that the root cause of James’s death “appears to be the removal of vital signs monitoring between 1.15am and 3.58am, as this resulted in the inability to be alerted to a suspected deterioration in the child’s respiratory condition and reducing oxygen saturations.” James’s family are now launching legal action against HCA Healthcare UK, which runs the Portland hospital.
James’s mother, Marguerite Dwerryhouse, said: “It has been completely heartbreaking. James had health issues but he was full of life. This was a routine operation, and the operation itself was a complete success. To then lose him simply because hospital staff haven’t cared for him and checked on him as they should is something we cannot accept and never will.” A spokesman for the Portland said: “We send our deepest sympathy to the family. We are cooperating with all investigations.”
