Doctor describes delay in giving sick baby antibiotics, inquest hears Antibiotics prescribed for a premature baby suffering with a respiratory illness were not given until after he suffered the first of two cardiac arrests, an inquest heard.
“I think I would have made an assessment, which would have been appropriate for a junior doctor on the unit to make, and I think I would have discussed that assessment with a consultant in an open dialogue because they were present.
Dr Spaull replied: “I think this is a really tricky question to answer for me just because, as a junior doctor on paediatric intensive care unit then, I still don’t have the expertise to have formulated ideas about ARDS causality because of my lack of experience in that area.”.
Dr Spaull said this question was hard for her to answer as at the time she was a junior doctor only five weeks into her first placement on a paediatric intensive care unit.
“I cannot recall any details of what I said but I recall the conclusion was that it would be reasonable to start Ben on antibiotics,” she said.
