Hospital's blunder over sugar that killed twin baby
A premature baby died after hospital staff gave her a massive glucose overdose, an inquest heard yesterday.
The mistake led to Jada Pilkington Asanye suffering heart failure and brain damage.
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Jada lies in the intensive care unit at the Chelsea and Westminster hospital
She was fed a solution of 40 per cent sugar instead of four per cent after the wrong number was entered into a mixing machine.
Jada's mother Lorraine
A system of checks in the pharmacy unit at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in South London, failed to spot the error.
Jada died at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital a day after the blunder - the third day of her short life.
Yesterday, at the start of the inquest at Westminster Coroner's Court, her parents Lorraine Pilkington and Edward Asanye vowed to take legal action.
Their solicitor John Gillman said the hospital failed to act after a similar error in 2005. "All the clinical indications are that if this had not happened Jada would have survived," he added. "The system of checks at Guy's was completely inadequate.
"This was a totally avoidable tragedy made worse by the fact that Guy's had not acted on recommendations following a similar incident." Jada and her twin brother were delivered 14 weeks early - at 26 weeks.
Her brother died shortly after birth but she was responding well to treatment. The overdose - delivered by an intravenous feed bag - caused Jada to suffer seizures, extremely low blood pressure and breathing difficulties. She died on April 27 last year.
Miss Pilkington, 43, of Victoria, Central London, said: "I want the justice for Jade that she deserves and I want people to be held accountable."
Both hospitals have apologised to the couple.
