Exclusive: St Thomas’ hospital in London did not reveal that four premature babies – one of whom died – were infected
A leading NHS hospital failed to publicly disclose that four very ill premature babies in its care were infected with a deadly bacterium, one of whom died soon after, the Guardian can reveal.
St Thomas’ hospital did not admit publicly that it had suffered an outbreak of Bacillus cereus in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of its Evelina children’s hospital in late 2013 and early 2014.
Did not acknowledge either the incident or infant’s death in any public forum.
Failed to mention the death in the report of its own internal inquiry into the outbreak.
Did not tell its own board that one of the four infected children who were given contaminated total parenteral nutrition (TPN) died, despite the board’s legal duty to oversee the trust.
Did not alert the media to the outbreak and instead prepared a statement in case it received any inquiries – none of which arrived, because GSTT never publicly acknowledged the incident.
