Alarms silenced on machine monitoring tragic baby

CORONER SAYS NEGLECT CONTRIBUTED TO DEATH OF GIRL AGED TWO MONTHS

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT

to the HOSPITAL neglect contributed death of a two-month-old baby, a coroner has concluded.

Four alarms on a monitoring machine were silenced and then switched off before baby Louella Sheridan collapsed in a high dependency unit, it has been found.

Coroner John Pollard criticised Louella's treatment at Royal Bolton Hospital, its 'useless' subsequent investigations and concluded: "It's reasonable to conclude if the alarms had not been silenced on the monitor, they would have alerted staff to the collapse and they would have worked on her for some time and her life would have been extended albeit perhaps for a very short period."

Louella Sheridan, who was born with a heart condition, died at Royal Bolton Hospital on April 24, 2022, just two months after she was born at the same hospital. The infant had undergone surgery at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool but was discharged and returned home under the care of community nurses. Although she had health problems, she was expected to live a 'comparatively normal life, an inquest into her death was told.