Kinked tubes used to ventilate ill baby 'useless'
Tubes used by an air ambulance doctor to ventilate a critically ill baby from Shropshire with severe breathing difficulties were useless, an inquest has heard.
Dr Matthew Boylan told the hearing he tried twice to insert an endotracheal tube into little Kate Seren Stanton-Davies's throat but both were 'twisted and kinked'.
Dr Boylan said he believed the tubes, which were carried on board the Midlands Air Ambulance, had been packed in plastic bags in such a way that they had been twisted to fit inside and the kink became permanent.
Kate was born at Ludlow Community Hospital on March 1 2009 but died at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital just six hours later. Kate's parents Rhiannon Davies and Richard Stanton, of Dahn Drive, Ludlow, believe a string of mistakes lay behind Kate's death.
The jury inquest heard yesterday that Dr Boylan, who was on secondment to the air ambulance from the Army, was scrambled to Ludlow Hospital.
The helicopter landed near the hospital, and the crew was met by an ambulance which had brought Kate from the maternity unit.
Dr Boylan said he was told Kate had been born two hours earlier and become unresponsive but he was not given any of her medical records by the paramedic and midwife who handed her over, only a note detailing the baby's name and weight at birth.
He said Kate was pale, cold, 'floppy' and when he tested her blood sugar he found it was almost five times the normal level. He also said her heartbeat was 60 beats per minute and so he surmised she had gone into cardiac arrest.
Dr Boylan said he took the decision not to fly Kate to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital as hospital staff had anticipated because its helipad was closed but to Birmingham Children's Hospital instead. He said he learnt in flight, however, that the latter did not have a neo-natal unit and so the crew was told to go to Birmingham Heartlands.
Dr Boylan then told of the problems trying to insert endotracheal tubes into Kate's throat to ventilate her and said that after failing twice he abandoned the procedure and fitted Kate with a valved bag to ventilate her.
The hearing continues.
