'Insufficient evidence' to prove a 'significant' medical error led to baby's death in Chesterfield

The inquest into the death of 4-week-old Orla Clayton concluded this afternoon

Author: Chris Davis-SmithPublished 22nd Nov 2024

An inquest has concluded there’s ’insufficient evidence’ to prove that a ‘significant’ medical error led to the death of a 1-month-old baby in Chesterfield.

Orla Clayton died at Chesterfield Royal Hospital back in July of 2020.

During the tense conclusion, Orla's parents wiped away tears from their eyes - as the coroner told them a medical error was 'unlikely' to have contributed to their daughter's death.

Orla had been very unwell when she was admitted to hospital & ended up dying from heart failure.

The 1-month-old had been treated with ten times the prescribed amount of medication she should’ve been given to treat her irregular heartbeat by medics - something the coroner described as a ‘significant’ error.

Despite this - the coroner found there wasn’t enough evidence that this caused Orla’s death.

The inquest also heard that measures have been put in place by Chesterfield Royal Hospital since Orla’s death to prevent any similar mistakes around medication administration happening in future.

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