Intended for healthcare professionals

News

UK paediatrician is criticised over handling of baby’s death

BMJ 2014; 348 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g1710 (Published 24 February 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;348:g1710
  1. Clare Dyer
  1. 1BMJ

A consultant paediatrician has been criticised in a serious case review into the death of an 8 week old baby for failing to give police a firm opinion that the child was probably a victim of a criminal assault, inadvertently delaying a homicide investigation.1

The unnamed doctor arrived at Northampton General Hospital’s emergency department at 7 am on 17 March 2012 in response to a call after Jamie Kightley was brought to the hospital dead. Under the procedure for handling sudden unexpected deaths of children he became the “responsible paediatrician” and should have coordinated a multiagency …

View Full Text

Log in

Log in through your institution

Subscribe

* For online subscription