EAST Surrey Hospital has been cleared of contributing to the death of a two-day-old baby boy.
Tobias Taylor died of septicaemia after his bowel burst, an inquest heard this week.
His distraught parents, from Redhill, had claimed that due to hospital policy, doctors refused to examine him until he was 24 hours old, despite pre-birth scans showing potential problems which could cause a blocked bowel.
While the inquest heard aspects of his care should have been better, and doctors should have examined him earlier, it also heard evidence from a string of midwives and doctors who said Marie Taylor had discharged her baby after 16 hours, before he had been seen, and against medical advice.
Following a verdict of death by natural causes, Mrs Taylor, 40, told the Mirror she still held medical staff responsible."It is something you can never forget," she said, "because he should be here. I relive it, I know from start to finish what happened, I will go to my grave with it."
The court heard that, although the pre-birth scans were in Mrs Taylor's medical notes, no care plan had been made for Tobias. A registrar didn't examine Tobias before his mother discharged him because she wrongly thought another doctor already had.
Mrs Taylor was given a list of symptoms to be aware of when she took him home on May 17, 2009.
By the early hours of the following morning he was vomiting and "not settling". A paediatric consultant claimed that, had his parents taken him back to hospital as soon as his health began to deteriorate, Tobias could have survived.
Deputy assistant coroner for Surrey, Alice Hewitt, concluded: "Although clearly this was natural causes, it is clear that babies with this condition can and do survive."
She said the evidence didn't identify "failings", but she made a series of observations: "It was clear that the risk of meconium ileus [blocked bowel] was known and was apparent ante-natally," she said.
"It would have been good practice to have careful monitoring of him to see how he developed, whether he developed problems as a result of that risk. Although a plan of sorts was put in place, it wasn't as assiduous as it might have been. By 5.30pm on the afternoon of his birth, he had still not been physically examined by a paediatrician."
Mrs Taylor discharged Tobias against medical advice, she said, and was told what symptoms to look out for.
"Tobias became unwell in the early hours of the morning and [Mr and Mrs Taylor] brought him back to the hospital at about 9am the following morning. By that time, it is clear the chances of any intervention helping him survive were remote."
