Baby given 10-times normal dose of drug in prescription error

A FOUR-month-old baby girl died after a chemist dispensed a potentially fatal dose of medicine, an inquest heard.

Abbie Jones received 10 times the dose she was meant to have after her mother was supplied with the wrong prescription.

Abbie's mother Maxine Winfield, 30, unwittingly gave the baby at least two doses of the wrongly labelled medicine bottle and the tot received another two doses in hospital before the mistake was realised.

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Abbie fell seriously ill and was admitted to Sheffield Children's Hospital suffering from dehydration and septic shock on May 1, 2006, but died a month later.

Sheffield coroner Chris Dorries has told the inquest Abbie received "an inappropriate amount of medication" before she was admitted to hospital.

Pharmacist Jeremy Power issued a prescription for 10 times the normal dose of the diuretic Furosemide.

The bottle was wrongly labelled to give doses of five mls twice a day. Instead Abbie should have been given 0.5 mls.

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Mr Power told the hearing he overheard his technician querying the dosage over the telephone with the surgery treating the baby, but admitted he did not check to see if the technician had spoken to a doctor.

"With hindsight I wish I had," said Mr Power. "I accept a stronger intervention should have been made."

He was asked by Mr Dorries: "Was it not a major warning bell that all was not right here? "

Mr Power said he did not realise at the time but admitted the information could have been checked on medical records.

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The inquest has heard how a receptionist at the GP's surgery, Julia Dransfield, wrongly made out a prescription for the drug after Miss Winfield rang the surgery.

She put incorrect information into a computer which printed the prescription and overrode a safety warning which flagged up if too much medicine was being prescribed. It was presented to the doctor as a repeat prescription and the error was not picked up.

After Abbie's death a police investigation was launched and Miss Winfield and the baby's father Neil Jones were driven from their home by a hate mob.

Following Abbie's death, Mr Jones took an overdose and died.

Abbie, who was born with Down's Syndrome and a hole-in-the-heart, was prescribed medicines including Furosemide after she had problems with breathing and keeping her feed down.

The hearing continues.