Reece's life 'could have been saved'

THE life of a Derby toddler who died from diabetes could

have been saved if he had not been sent home from hospital, an

inquest has been told.

Reece Sharp died at his Alvaston home on December 18, 24

hours after leaving Derbyshire Children's Hospital. His mother

Charlotte Smith had desperately tried to resuscitate him.

The two-year-old had been suffering from a mystery illness

for five days but had not been tested for diabetes, despite

being assessed by a GP, by a nurse from Derbyshire Health

United, Derby's out-of-hours doctors service, over the phone

and by medics at the hospital.

A postmortem examination revealed he had been suffering from

undiagnosed diabetes, a condition that affects about 17 out of

every 100,000 children and can be controlled with

medication.

At an inquest into his death, Julie Mott, a paediatric

registrar from the hospital, said she examined Reece after he

was brought in by his worried parents, Darren Sharp and Miss

Smith, on December 17.

He had been referred to hospital by Dr Mohammed Hussain at

Parkfield Surgery, in London Road, Alvaston, who noticed that

Reece had lost weight, he was lethargic, and that his abdomen

was soft.

Coroner Dr Robert Hunter asked Dr Hussain that when he

referred Reece to the hospital was it his expectation that

Reece would be admitted, and Dr Hussain said yes.

Ms Mott, in a statement to the inquest, said she looked at

Reece's notes before examining him.

In the statement, she said: “I had considered diabetes, but

it was not top of my concerns at that time.”

She said she had intended to weigh Reece, and when she was

questioned by the coroner as to why she later didn't, she said:

“I forgot.”

Ms Mott, when she saw Reece, found his chest was clear and

that he was alert and responding. She also said his throat was

red and slightly enlarged, although she did find his abdomen

was soft.

When asked how difficult it would have been to make a

diagnosis of diabetes, she said: “We could have made a

diagnosis of it. We could have done tests.”

Ms Mott was also asked if she considered testing for

diabetes. She replied: “In retrospect, we should have done but

it did not appear to be indicated.”

Dr Elizabeth Adamson, a consultant community paediatrician

from Derby City Primary Care Trust, investigated the

circumstances of Reece's death. During the inquest she was

asked whether or not Reece's life could have been saved if he

had been admitted to hospital instead of being sent home.

She answered: “Yes”.

Dr Adamson also said that diabetes testing was simple. She

said: “It's a matter of two very simple tests – either urine or

blood.”

Mr Sharp told the inquest that over the course of a few days

from December 12, Reece had become ill.

He said: “Every time I used to come home from work he would

be waiting for me at the top of the stairs, but he wasn't.”

Mr Sharp told the inquest that he called Derbyshire Health

United, an out-of-hours medical advice service, after his son

had taken a turn for the worse one night.

The 28-year-old described his son's symptoms to the

call-handler. “I rang direct from my dad's house and they asked

to speak to whoever was with Reece at the time.

“I gave them Charlotte's number and by the time I got home

they had rung Charlotte.

“They said it sounded like a viral infection,” he said.

Lyn Charlesworth, a nurse advisor from Derbyshire Health

United, answered Mr Sharp's call after it was transferred to

her by a call-handler at the organisation.

In a statement to the court, Ms Charlesworth said that her

job was to perform a telephone assessment of symptoms by asking

a range of questions that were generated by a computer

system.

In a transcript from the conversation between her and Miss

Smith, she described Reece's symptoms as normal. She said: “The

sort of things you are describing are all fairly normal

symptoms in babies or toddlers who have got an infection, a

viral infection.”

The inquest heard that information that Mr Sharp had passed

on to the original call-handler was not passed on to Ms

Charlesworth.

When asked if she should have been given the information, Ms

Charlesworth said: “With hindsight, yes.”

A day after being discharged from hospital, Reece stopped

breathing while watching TV in his home in Thorndike

Avenue.

Miss Smith, 23, said: “I noticed that his chest wasn't

rising. I phoned the ambulance and they told me to lay him on

the floor and give him mouth-to-mouth.”

Pathologist Dr Hohammed Al-Adnani carried out Reece's

postmortem examination and told the inquest that the cause of

death was undiagnosed diabetes.

The inquest is continuing.