Seven-month-old baby misdiagnosed by two Nottingham doctors proved fatal

A seven-month-old baby died after being misdiagnosed by doctors on two separate occasions, an inquest has heard.

Indie Moloney became unwell at home in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, and was taken to a children's accident and emergency department on 21 July 2021.

The inquest heard a doctor diagnosed her with gastroenteritis and sent her home before she was seen later by an out-of-hours doctor who said the same.

Indie was again sent home and died two days later from a bowel condition.

Mother Sally Checkley told the inquest at Nottingham Coroner's Office that Indie had woken up unwell on the morning of 21 July.

She said she "picked her up and she was just so pale and had no colour in her lips. She kept screaming and falling back to sleep".

Ms Checkley and her partner Kyle Moloney took their daughter to Nottingham Children's Hospital, based at Queen's Medical Centre, where she vomited later that morning.

The A&E doctor said they thought it was a stomach infection.

Ms Checkley said the doctor told her "if it got any worse or if her stools changed in particular to go back to A&E or the GP".

After spotting blood in their baby's nappy later, the couple called 111 for advice and their daughter was referred to the out-of-hours service NEMS, based at Nottingham railway station.

There Ms Checkley said Dr Mohammed Afzal checked the nappy and diagnosed gastroenteritis.

He sent them home and advised the mother to collect a stool sample for analysis if there had been no improvement after 48 hours.

Indie remained unwell and on the morning of 23 July Ms Checkley recalled: "She had a bit less colour in her lips. I just thought it was dehydration from the night."

She told the inquest Indie got much worse, saying: "She looked off colour, a bit more blue... that's when we said 'it's been 48 hours now we need to ring somebody'."

They called 111 but paramedics could not save Indie.

A post-mortem examination showed Indie had intussusception, a relatively common bowel condition in young children with death uncommon if diagnosed.

However, pathologist Mudhar Al-Adnani, from London's St Thomas' Hospital, told the inquest: "All the symptoms are non-specific. Looking at probabilities one would usually think it was gastroenteritis.

"There has to be a judgement by a health professional who is seeing the baby at the time."

Dr Afzal was asked why he did not refer Indie to hospital, and told the inquest: "If I'd suspected intussusception I would have certainly referred Indie without any delay."

The GP said he thought the most likely cause was gastroenteritis, which is 200-300 times more common.

The inquest continues.

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