Doctor 'at loss' over boy's death

Rose Aru is accused of manslaughter

A doctor found a toddler dying after a nurse accidentally gave him the wrong drug, Liverpool Crown Court has heard.

Rose Aru, 59, of Wavertree, denies the manslaughter of 18-month-old Jake McGeouth at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool in July 2001.

Dr Malcolm Semple, who was a registrar at the hospital, said he was "at a loss to understand" how the boy had become so critically ill.

Jake, from Blackburn, Lancashire, was being treated for a heart condition.

Mrs Aru was meant to inject him with the sedative Midazolam but picked up the wrong syringe, the court was told.

Instead he was given the muscle relaxing drug Vercuronium which caused his heart to stop.

Jake McGeouth died in July 2001

Mrs Aru was not authorised to administer either drug.

Dr Semple said: "My problem was that a child who in my opinion was medically stable was now critically unwell and I was at a loss to understand why this was.

"I asked Nurse Aru what had actually happened and she was very straightforward with me.

"With no hesitation she described that Jake had become agitated and she had given him a bolus of Vercuronium, that is a single shot.

"Because I was concerned about that statement I asked Gill Cochrane, who was a senior sister, to come and stand with me and listen to what Nurse Aru was telling me because I appreciated the gravity of what she was relaying."

The prosecution say the drugs were on the toddlers trolley to be used in an emergency but Dr Semple agreed in court that that would have been "wholly inappropriate".

The court heard how Dr Semple had made a note saying Jake should not need a sedative during or after the examination.

When he heard Jake needed life support he was concerned and rushed to the scan room to find him "lying absolutely still, he was pale, with a doctor performing life support".

But doctors were unable to find oxygen in the room, to help resuscitate him.

The case continues.