Two more children's deaths probed

Raychel Ferguson, 9, died after surgery at Altnagelvin

The deaths of two more children in Northern Ireland hospitals are to be examined by an inquiry.

Conor Mitchell, who was 15, and nine-year-old Claire Roberts died after receiving fluids in hospital.

The deaths of two other children are already being investigated by QC John O'Hara.

The investigation, which is due to start next January, was ordered after claims that young patients had died needlessly of hyponatraemia.

The condition means the body's fluid and sodium levels are out of balance.

'Introduced guidelines'

The circumstances of the deaths will be examined alongside those of four-year-old Adam Strain, from Belfast, and nine-year-old Raychel Ferguson, from Londonderry.

In February, the Public Prosecution Service said no-one was to be prosecuted over the schoolgirl's death. She died in 2001 after surgery in Altnagelvin Hospital.

The investigation into the deaths had been postponed because of a police investigation.

The investigation into the death of 17-month-old Lucy Crawford from Fermanagh was dropped from the inquiry following a request from the victim's family this week.

Mr O'Hara said: "The Department of Health had introduced guidelines on hyponatraemia. A question arises, however, as to the extent to which those guidelines were followed, if they were followed at all.

"In Conor's case there is clearly no point in having guidelines if the staff there, when they are directed, are not trained in them."

Conor, who had, cerebral palsy, died in the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children four days after being admitted to Craigavon Area Hospital.