Sepsis: Bereaved mum wants answers not ‘hollow condolences’

Mrs Cope referenced the hospital recently partially losing its mortuary accreditation, after assessors raised concerns about security following two mix-ups of bodies given to bereaved families.

“It’s not just an issue solely related to the mortuary,” she said.

Having narrowed down who the staff member could be, Mrs Cope says the health board told the parents could not be shown anonymised pictures of the shortlisted staff members for data protection reasons, which she argued was “ridiculous” given her husband was a “key witness”.

She continued: “From our perspective, mistakes happen, unfortunately they always will, but how they deal with them is everything.”

She said she was in discussions with the health board about the improvement measures to the discharge process put in place since her son’s death, which she believed were “completely inadequate”.

She added she was part of a group campaigning for NHS investigations to be carried out by a “completely independent, impartial body” in cases like her son’s.

“They should not be allowed to investigate themselves, these people aren’t detectives,” she said.

“At the end of the day, a child has died a preventable, horrible death.

“If they can’t answer these things [about who saw my son], how can they say they have learned? How are patients safe?

“Nothing brings Dylan back, and all we want is suitable measures to prevent it from happening again.”

Dr James Calvert, medical director of Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, said: “We are aware of the ongoing distress being experienced by the family due to our inability to identify the doctor who spoke with Dylan’s father, despite an extensive investigation.

“Following a formal clinical assessment, a doctor would usually make an entry into the medical record of a patient. This was not done in this case and therefore we have no record in the notes to enable us to identify this individual. We have sought advice from external organisations and believe we have explored all the options available to us to identify the individual the family are seeking.”

Mr Calvert said the health board had explained its findings to the family and had not been asked by the coroner to do further investigation, adding improvement measures were being put in place and the children’s emergency department “remains a safe area, with access restricted only to staff concerned with the treatment of patients in that area”.