Medical professionals deactivate the alarms of a monitoring device and a two-month-old baby dies.
- Hospitalized after contracting bronchiolitis, Louella Sheridan, a two-month-old baby, died due to neglected treatment by medical teams.
- The monitoring devices connected to the child had notably been muted and then deactivated before his death.
- After a year of investigation, the Bolton Criminal Court (United Kingdom) concluded that the little girl had died of natural causes, favored by “negligence”.
In April 2022, Louella Sheridan, a two-month-old British baby girl, died in hospital following negligence by medical staff. According to information reported by the Sunthe young child suffered from a heart problem from birth and was operated on at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
Death of Louella Sheridan: neglected care
After she was released from the facility, Louella Sheridan received home care from a nurse. However, the child showed signs of difficulty breathing and was treated by a specialist unit at the Royal Bolton Hospital (United Kingdom). The medical team then noted that she had contracted bronchiolitis, a respiratory infection of viral origin, which can cause breathing difficulties in young children. During her stay, the little girl was also treated with antibiotics for sepsis.
On the morning of April 24, Louella Sheridan had a high temperature and a rapid heartbeat. Despite the deterioration of her health, no medical staff examined her. At 9 a.m., Casey Quigley, the child’s mother, noticed that her daughter was “limp and unresponsive”. Doctors attempted to resuscitate Louella Sheridan, but were unsuccessful.
During the investigation, Bolton Criminal Court found that alarms connected to monitoring devices, alerting staff to oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, heart rate and blood pressure, were muted, then extinguished before the death of Louella Sheridan. According to Casey Quigley, a nurse told her she had to have some “enough of hearing the beep” emanating from the machine connected to the child.
“No patient should have their monitoring equipment disabled, especially not a vulnerable baby”
“It is reasonable to conclude that if the alarms had not been disabled on the monitor, they would have alerted staff to the child’s deteriorating condition, and doctors would have worked on her for some time and her life would have been prolonged, even if only for a very short period of time”, said John Pollard, coroner, a court officer, who investigates the circumstances of a suspicious death, responsible for the investigation. According to his conclusions, Louella Sheridan died of natural causes, favored by the “neglect”.
Rachael Heyes, the family’s lawyer, notably recalled “that no patient should have their monitoring equipment deactivated, especially not a vulnerable baby”. The latter, specializing in medical negligence, also congratulated the conclusion of the investigation.“This provides closure for Casey and Granville and, although they will never fully recover from this tragedy, it is an important step for them.”she noted.
After the announcement of the findings, the Royal Bolton Hospital also reacted by acknowledging the facts. “I would like to extend my sincere condolences to Casey, Granville [ndlr le père de l’enfant] and to all of Louella’s family, who continue to recover from this tragic loss (…) We fully accept the outcome of the investigation and are incredibly sorry that on this occasion our systems and processes which should have taken care of Louella were not up to the task.”said Tyrone Roberts, head nurse at the facility.
