Inquest opens into death of 'baby Jack'
AN INQUEST has opened into the death of a baby at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital five years ago.
The death of 'baby Jack' in January 2014 led to an investigation of procedures on the PEH maternity unit.
This led, in September 2017, to two midwives being struck off and another suspended for one year following a hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
Baby Jack's parents attended the first day of the inquest which is scheduled to last all week,
Judge Philip Robey said he had no doubt that the pain and anguish they would have suffered at the loss of their son after only a few hours of life would continue to this day and he extended the Magistrate's Court's deepest sympathies to them.
He said the inquiry would have to focus on matters directly causative of death and must indeed be confined to those matters alone. For that reason he had restricted the evidence to be called at this stage to three witnesses, namely an expert on obstetric care, a neonatal expert, and a consultant paediatric pathologist. He would use the word 'alleged' failings with care as some, perhaps many of them, were not accepted by medical and professional staff who provided them.
In the event of any such failings being found, on the balance of probabilities, to have been causative to the death, detailed evidence would be heard at a later date.
