For me I agree, that it’s pretty horrifying to see that the doctor just put down a cause of death that didn’t actually fit. However, I also completely understand why the parents wouldn’t have particularly wanted one, and why the Dr didn’t want to upset/distress them anymore.
From today, I also can see why a lot on the fence or leaning to NG, will see even more reason that the hospital failings are to blame.
But for me it’s actually strengthened the prosecutions case, because the doctor has held her hands up and admitted her (massive) mistake, and actually apologised to the parents. I think this just shows the absolute trust that these parents had in the hospital and the staff. So for me, that just continues to show just how easy it was for LL to abuse that trust, and pray on the hospitals weaknesses.
The no PM also maybe gave her more confidence to carry on. I think if this baby had a PM he would have been one of the stronger evidence wise against LL, so knowing she got away with something as obvious as this one, it made her more cocky, and feel unstoppable. As yet we still have no obvious cause for baby E’s collapse and death. If it was NEC, as on certificate then why did E show no real clinical signs of it this. For me this highlights how all these sudden and unexpected/unexplained collapses/deaths seemed to happen when LL was there. And no obvious other cause why a stable baby would suddenly just collapse right after involvement from LL again. So if NEC wasn’t the cause then what was is the big question? This leads me back to the LL coincidence again.
As awful as it was that the doctor didn’t push for PM, I hope the fact she at least apologised to the parents goes some way to show how sorry she is, and how much she now regrets it. But if LL has done this, we don’t know for sure if the PM would have further stopped LL at that point in time, and even with no PM if LL is guilty then it’s her to blame for E’s death, not this doctor. The hospital is not on trial, LL is. A terrible decision over a PM, was absolutely not the cause of E to die. Yes she should not have recorded it as that when no evidence for it, but that leads back to the question of if it wasn’t nec, what was it? Given that this baby was so stable that he was given a cause of death that seemed the most likely to fit, but didn’t actually fit clinically really at all, reinforces my opinion that it was completely unexplained and they didn’t actually know what else could have caused something as catastrophic as this. So for that part of blame, as in baby E dying, the doctor is not responsible for what happened to E before he died. Imo
I know there’s going to be loads of disagreement with this. It’s purely my opinion based on my interpretation of what I’ve heard today. Not trying to convince anyone of anything, just giving my thoughts