A TWO-month-old baby has died in hospital after medics fed her contaminated baby food.
Aviva Otte tragically passed away while in the neonatal intensive care unit at Evelina Children’s Hospital, London.
AlamyAviva Otte died while in the neonatal intensive care unit at Evelina Children’s Hospital[/caption]
Her death at the institute run by Guy’s and St Thomas’ Trust happened in January 2014 but she has today been named for the first time.
Aviva’s death happened six months before two others babies died after being infected with the same bacterium.
All of the tots had been fed from the same batch of contaminated baby feed.
Company ITH Pharma, who provided the feed total parental nutrition (TPN), was fined £1.2m by a Crown Court just last year.
Investigations found that 19 premature babies were infected across nine hospitals the same year Aviva died.
Senior Coroner Dr Julian Morris will decide next year whether all three inquest into the deaths at Evelina Children’s Hospital will take place together – 10 years on from the tragedy.
Clodagh Bradley, counsel for ITH, told Dr Morris it was in the public interest to join the inquests as there were “many overlaps” between their cases.
She said: “We have set out the many similarities between the infections of the babies.
“These two contamination events occurred five months apart and concern the same bacteria.
“On the source of the contamination, there are likely to be common factual issues between these three cases.”
Ms Bradley added that joining the three could prevent similar deaths.
She said: “We are not only looking at how these infants came by their deaths, but also if there are further risks due to a lack of communication.
“It’s in the interests of justice to hear these matters together.”
ITH are also planning on bringing an expert witness on contamination to the inquest, Ms Bradley continued.
A further pre-inquest review is set to be held in April or May next year before a three-week inquest starts on September 9.