20th March, 2024
Baby Martyn Mirchev was eleven years old on May 2, 2023, when he was rushed to Kingston Hospital by his parents.
He had contracted a fever and he was reportedly vomiting. This made the parents rush him to the hospital for medical attention.
However, the hospital staff attended to him, according to an investigative report by MyLondon Magazine, discharged him without giving him antibiotics before any results from a throat swab had come.
After two weeks, according to the news medium, Martyn’s mum took him back to A&E after being referred by a GP who had become concerned by his fever and rash.
Martyn was reportedly assessed by a nurse and his heart rate was found to be too high but the staff weren’t able to check his blood pressure.
Irwin Mitchell, the lawyer who took on the case for Martyn’s family was said to have revealed that the hospital nurse recorded Martyn’s condition as ‘normal’ on the Paedeatric Early Warn Score, which was incorrect.
“The computer system would have flagged to staff that Martyn needed a sepsis screening, but Martyn never had one. Therefore, instead of being referred to a senior doctor or nurse, he was transferred to the paediatric assessment unit, and again sepsis was missed during a second assessment.
“It was only after another assessment by a registrar and concerns about Martyn’s rash that a sepsis screening was started – around two-and-a-half hours after he was admitted to hospital. But Martyn was deteriorating rapidly, and suffered a cardiac arrest. He died at around 5.45pm that day,” the paper reports.
It further reveals that serious incident investigation was carried out following the 11-month-old’s death, leading to a report which found that an urgent review into sepsis care and treatment in children was needed across the trust. Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has recommended a “deep dive” review in the paediatric emergency department.
In their examination of Martyn’s treatment, the report found that during an initial assessment, emergency staff failed to recognise and act on abnormal and incomplete observations. There was a delay in recognising and treating sepsis.
Martyn should have remained in the emergency department and started ‘sepsis six’ treatment – a key set of medical interventions including intravenous antibiotics and fluids and to be started within an hour of suspected sepsis – the report added.
Instead, a decision was made to transfer him to a paediatric assessment unit around 40 minutes after he arrived at the hospital. The investigation report also found previous cases had highlighted concerns regarding the identification and treatment of sepsis in children attending the emergency department.
Martyn’s parents, Veni and Deyan, aged 35 and 36, of Surbiton, Surrey, have spoken for the first time about their devastating loss.
The medium quotes Veni, Martyn’s mum, as saying: “After being sent home from hospital, Martyn didn’t seem his usual happy self and we remained concerned about him. When we heard nothing from the hospital about his swab we took him to the GP. When they told us to take Martyn to hospital we never imagined that in a few hours he would have passed away.
“That afternoon will remain with us forever and is something I don’t think our family will get over. Seeing Martyn as his condition deteriorated so quickly was awful. As his mum, all I wanted to do was care for him and help him, but I felt so powerless.
“Martyn was the most amazing little boy. His sisters adored him and it remains hard to think that he should still be at home with us all. He was just an absolute delight and didn’t deserve to die.”
His father, Deyan, is also quoted as saying: “It was hard enough to read the problems in Martyn’s care in the report. However, to see that there appear to have been previous incidents and that care issues were continuing is astonishing for all the wrong reasons.
“My heart immediately went out to others who may also be affected. We’re now left wondering how many other incidents have there been and are the other families even aware?
“While we want answers for our boy, we also want others who may be affected by similar care issues at the Hospital Trust to be aware and for improvements in care to be made. We wouldn’t want anyone to have face the hurt and pain our family are now left to live with.”