London inquests begin into hospital deaths of babies from contaminated feed

A mother whose premature baby died in hospital after receiving contaminated intravenous food has told her son’s inquest it was “the worst experience a parent could have”.

Yousef Al-Kharboush was nine days old when he died at St Thomas’ hospital in London on 1 June 2014 after developing sepsis from liquid food infected with bacteria called Bacillus cereus.

He was one of 19 premature babies who became infected in a major outbreak across nine hospitals in 2014.

The inquests into Yousef’s death, as well as those into two other babies who died in separate outbreaks involving contaminated feed – one-month-old Oscar Barker, who also died in June 2014, and three-month-old Aviva Otte, who died in January 2014 – began on Monday at Southwark coroner’s court.

The senior coroner, Dr Julian Morris, said his role was not to find blame but to identify the babies and how they died. The coroner revealed he was thinking of taking the unusual step of issuing a prevention of future deaths notice, a legal warning to one or more public or private bodies that they should take specific action to avoid any more deaths occurring in similar circumstances. Morris said: “The other duty I have to consider is whether to provide a prevention of future death report – that’s something I will consider as we hear the evidence over the next couple of weeks.”

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Source: The Guardian, 9 September 2024