Hospital Probed Over Meningitis Baby Death

THE death of a baby through wrong diagnosis has put a hospital’s admission practices under suspicion, a coroner said yesterday.

An inexperienced doctor thought a stomach rash on 17-month-old Rhys Brady, who later died from meningitis, was a scratch mark or an insect bite, an inquest heard. Dr Sureshchandra Madaiah admitted he was puzzled by the raised spot on Rhys’ stomach when he examined him at Daisy Hill Hospital, Newry, Co Down, in May last year.

Dr Madaiah said prior to treating Rhys, he had never come across a case of meningococcal septicaemia.

Consultant paediatrician Dr James Hughes told Belfast Coroner’s Court that Rhys, of St Anne’s Park, Mayobridge, Co Down, should have been given potentially life-saving drugs when he was examined.

Rhys deteriorated overnight and was not diagnosed until the morning at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Belfast where he died on May 17.

Coroner John Leckey said: “All the evidence we have had merits a critical look at what happens beyond the walls of the children’s hospital.”

The coroner adjourned the inquest and said he would deliver his ruling on Thursday August 18.