In July 2017 six-year-old Coco Bradford died in a Bristol hospital after receiving treatment at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro. An independent report has previously criticised the hospital and those involved as they missed opportunities to save the young girl’s life.
It was alleged by the family that the staff at the hospital tried to cover up their own failings by blaming her autism by suggesting that she was difficult to treat.
Coco was rushed to the hospital with vomiting and diarrhoea, both containing blood, but she was sent home from the Emergency Department as she was told her symptoms were likely the cause of Gastroenteritis. The inquest heard that upon admission, doctors felt her condition was not serious, this was despite her family pleading for more to be done.
In the following days, her condition got worse so she was transferred from Cornwall to Bristol where she died of multiple organ failure caused by sepsis.
Mrs Bradford told the coroner she had fought for years to expose the truth and fallings around her daughter's death. She said the failures, delays and lack of treatments was 'staggering in this day of modern medicine.'
The inquest, at Truro Coroner Court, continues.
Tozers' clinical negligence and inquest specialist Stuart Bramley observes
"Although we don't yet know the full story since the inquest is continuing, if it is correct that Coco's condition was partly blamed for the chain of events leading to her death, the hospital here really needs to give serious consideration to what they should do with the staff responsible. Contrary to what Mrs. Bradford asserts, the A&E doctor claims that Coco's medical records do not refer to blood being found in her vomit and feces. This should be a simple matter to confirm or rebut and I know the senior coroner for Cornwall will be looking carefully into all the evidence.
But taking a step back from the details, no child should be sent home from hospital with these symptoms. As I see in my own day-to-day practice, sepsis remains a silent killer even where the condition should be suspected or may even be obvious. No parent should need to go through this nightmare and if it is found that there was a cover-up afterward, as the family believes there was, I look forward to reading that the necessary action has been taken by the Trust. The patients of Cornwall deserve no less".
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