A coroner has ruled that a brain injury sustained by a baby at Sheffield Children’s Hospital did not lead to the child’s death.
Baby Joshua Hughes was born prematurely in 2023 with multiple medical issues, reports the BBC. According to the publication, the child suffered a brain injury after his blood pressure was not consistently monitored following surgery.
When the child’s blood pressure dropped, the problem was not addressed immediately due to “poor communication”.
According to the BBC, assistant coroner Hannah Berry told the inquest: “It was preventable and would not have occurred had it been treated in a timely manner. Much of this was due to poor communication between teams.”
The inquest ruled that the brain injury did not lead to the child’s death, which was actually caused by respiratory function problems. However, the inquest acknowledged the impact the brain injury would have had later in life and on the child’s quality of life before death.
“The brain injury did impact on his quality of life, and that was exceptionally difficult for Joshua and his family,” Berry told the inquest, as reported by the BBC.
According to the publication, the trust’s medical director, Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust’s Medical Director Dr. Jeff Perring, told the inquest: “We are sorry that the care Joshua received fell below the high standards we set ourselves and that Joshua’s family could expect of us.
“We acknowledge that our actions caused Joshua to have brain damage and whilst this was not found to contribute to his death, we have taken this very seriously.
“Our internal investigation showed that there were lessons to learn from Joshua’s care and we have taken immediate action to address these.”
