Paediatrician who tried to hide cause of child’s death from hyponatraemia 26 years ago is struck off

A consultant paediatrician has been struck off the UK medical register for dishonestly misleading an inquest and the parents of a child who died after treatment errors at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children 26 years ago.Heather Steen was not accused of treatment failures herself but of seeking to hide the true causes of Claire Roberts’s death from her parents and a coroner.The 1996 death of 9 year old Claire was the second of five child deaths at the hospital that became the subject of the UK’s longest running medical inquiry, into hyponatraemia related deaths in Northern Ireland. Hyponatraemia, a low concentration of sodium in the blood, can lead to fatal brain swelling and can occur when children are given intravenous fluids with too little sodium.The dangers of low sodium fluid replacement in children were highlighted by an influential BMJ article in 1992,1 but the incorrect solution was only…
Read Original Article: Paediatrician who tried to hide cause of child’s death from hyponatraemia 26 years ago is struck off »