Parents ask if Sheffield hospital's staffing levels led to son's death

The parents of a baby who died two days after being born have questioned whether staffing issues contributed to their son's death, an inquest heard.

Cassian Curry died at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals' Jessop Wing neo-natal unit in April 2021.

Cassian was born at 28 weeks and weighed 1lb 10oz (750g).

His parents said they had several concerns about his treatment, including reports the unit was understaffed due to it being the Easter weekend.

The inquest at Sheffield's Medico Legal Centre heard Cassian died on 5 April 2021.

The previous month the Trust's maternity services had been rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), though the neo-natal unit was not part of the inspection.

In a statement Karolina Curry said she and her husband, James, had concerns following reports the unit was short staffed and that medics failed to act on her concerns, including about her son's raised heart rate.

"We still can't get our heads around any of this and how a bank holiday means your child dies," she said.

"We cannot understand why they can't have life-saving checks or the right number of staff because of a bank holiday."

Following his birth on 3 April, Cassian was placed on total parental nutrition, a routine step for premature babies, which was delivered by an umbilical venous catheter.

The inquest will examine whether the catheter was incorrectly sited too close to Cassian's heart and if there was a failure to review its position and move it.

Mrs Curry said she twice noted that her son's heart rate increased to more than 200 beats per minute but was told by medical staff that it was nothing to worry about.

She said she also worried that Cassian had not produced any bowel movements and this was a sign that he was not feeding properly.

In the statement read by assistant coroner Abigail Combes, Mrs Curry she said the "whole process" from her son's birth to his death "seemed chaotic".

A CQC inspection of maternity services found the it did not have enough midwifery staff with the "right qualifications, skills, training and experience".

Ms Combes said the findings will be referred to in the inquest but stressed that the two inquiries had different remits.

The inquest continues.

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