Nigerian doctor convicted of manslaughter in UK

isaac dachen

November 5, 2015 11:17 AM

A female Nigerian doctor in the United Kingdom has been found guilty of manslaughter in the death of her young patient.

Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba walking to the court

A Nigerian doctor, Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba, has been convicted of manslaughter in the death of a six-year-old boy, Jack Adcock, a Down Syndrome patient, who died because she would not resuscitate him as she got him confused with another patient, reports Daily Mail.

Dr Bawa-Garba, alongside a nurse, Isabel Amaro, of the Leicester Royal Infirmary, were convicted due to gross negligence after the boy was rushed to the hospital after failing to resuscitate a patient because she got him confused with someone she dealt with earlier in the day.

Read: "Like Seriously!: Nigerian woman jailed for stealing doctor's identity, working as GP in the UK"

The Nottingham Crown Court heard that Bawa-Garba had confused Jack for another patient she had treated earlier in the day, which prosecutor, Andrew Thomas QC, described as a 'remarkable error'.

The prosecutor told the court that the doctor and nurse were accused of 'truly, exceptionally bad' treatment of the boy, who originally came to the hospital with diarrhea and vomiting and then suffered sepsis due to an infection

The boy had fallen ill with diarrhoea, sickness and breathlessness the evening before he was admitted to hospital on February 8, 2011.

"In short, she neglected her duty to care for Jack. It was not just a momentary lapse. Jack's care was neglected over a protracted period of time: her failings were compounded by a failure to go back and reassess Jack despite clear indications that his underlying condition was continuing.

These were not just simple breaches of duty, but really serious breaches amounting to gross negligence.

She failed to recognize that Jack was suffering from septic shock and when he collapsed, she momentarily stopped life-saving treatment after mistakenly believing he was under a 'do not resuscitate'."

She will be sentenced at a later date.

isaac dachen