The Nigerian-born doctor, Hadiza Bawa-Garba, charged with manslaughter over the death of a patient, a 6-year-old boy in the UK, has denied killing the deceased.
Late Jack Adcock(pictured right) had Down’s syndrome . He died after suffering cardiac arrest and was undergoing resuscitation when Dr. Bawa Garba mistaken him for another patient who had been discharged, and gave ‘do not resuscitate order’ to the nurses.
Another doctor spotted the mistake but Jack died after efforts to revive him failed.
The Kaduna-born doctor was consequently charged with manslaughter through gross negligence alongside two nurses, Theresa Taylor and Isabel Amaro, who equally worked at the Leicester Royal Infirmary Hospital where the incident happened on 18 February 2011.
Dr. Bawa-Garba and the two nurses on Tuesday appeared before the court and denied the manslaughter charge.
However, the prosecutor Andrew Thomas told the jury that the boy’s death was caused by serious neglect on the part of the doctor and two nurses.
The medics failed to recognise that a six-year-old boy’s body was “shutting down” due to sepsis and close to death, he said.
Mr Thomas claimed the three medical staff failed to recognise the sepsis, which is inflammation caused by infection, and failed to act on it.
He said the staff did not monitor Jack’s condition effectively, and failed to recognise high levels of blood gas and lactate.
The case is expected to last up to five weeks.
