Paediatrician found guilty of manslaughter after boy’s death from septic shock

A hospital doctor has been found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence after the death from septic shock of a 6 year old boy with Down’s syndrome.

Hadiza Bawa-Garba, a specialist registrar in paediatrics, was accused, together with the agency nurse Isabel Amaro, of “truly, exceptionally bad” treatment of Jack Adcock, who was admitted to Leicester Royal Infirmary with diarrhoea, vomiting, and breathlessness between 10 am and 10.30 am on 8 February 2011.

Bawa-Garba, 38, diagnosed gastroenteritis and ordered chest radiography and blood tests, and the boy was given fluids for dehydration. The tests showed that he had a widespread bacterial infection, and he was put on antibiotics …