Devastated parents describe how they watched one-year-old die after hospital made 24 'unbelievable' mistakes

The parents of a one-year-old girl who died after 'gross neglect' have called the mistakes made at a hospital where she was being cared for 'unbelievable'. Eleanor Aldred-Owen, from Mold, was diagnosed with bicoronal craniosynostosis at just 12 weeks old.

This condition meant that the sutures, the fibrous tissue joints connecting the bones of the skull, had fused prematurely, preventing normal growth and necessitating surgery to alleviate potential pressure on her brain. An inquest into Eleanor's death held at Gerard Majella Coroner's Courthouse in Liverpool on Wednesday (December 18) heard how Eleanor attended Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool for surgery on September 29 2023, but complications arose and the hospital missed crucial opportunities to address them.

Eleanor’s parents Rachel and Chaz have now issued a heartbreaking statement following the inquest saying their lives are "empty and quiet" without their daughter. 

"We have found the failings in care identified by the hospital and recognised by the Coroner as unbelievable. We thought Eleanor would be cared for by specialists, instead there were 24 identified lessons to be learned in relation to her post operative care.

"The process of the Trust investigation was not an experience we found helpful and in particular we found the stance taken in preparation for the inquest and in the Trusts submissions to the Coroner only made this worse.

"We are intensely grateful to the Coroner for her thorough investigation and her conclusion that Eleanor died as a result of numerous gross failures to provide her basic medical care, of course none of this changes the fact we have to continue our lives without Eleanor.”

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Source: Wales Online, 19 December 2024