Baby's inquest finds serious hospital failures after family's £250k battle

A coroner has found neglect and failure to provide adequate medical care contributed to the preventable death of six-day old baby, Hayden Nguyen, at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London in 2016.

The coroner’s verdict came after his parents spent seven years and £250,000 fighting for justice.

Senior coroner for Surrey, Richard Travers, said in his findings that Hayden had "obvious needs that were simply not met" by clinicians when his parents took him to the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in August 2016. 

Hayden’s parents were concerned about their son‘ s fever but his condition quickly deteriorated. He had a cardiac arrest and died within 12 hours of arriving at the hospital.

Mr Travers found that the treatment Hayden received fell "very seriously below expected standards" and if he had received appropriate and timely care, he would have survived.

An internal investigation by the hospital following Hayden's death found there had been eight errors in the care he'd received, including failures to identify signs of septic shock and to act on abnormal test results.

However, the original inquest into Hayden's death, held at Westminster Coroner's Court in 2017, concluded he had died of natural causes. 

The coroner, Dr Shirley Radcliffe, then contacted the hospital to raise concerns about their investigation. 

The hospital produced a second report, which halved the number of errors found and said the root cause of Hayden's death was an infection "which is known to have a high mortality." 

His parents were incensed by the coroner's actions and felt they had to act. Commenting on the first inquest, Hayden's father, Tum Nguyen, 44, said "It is the second worst experience of my life. Having to live with the injustice and the dishonesty has been really difficult, which is why the fight for having a second inquest has not really been a choice for us."

Obtaining a second inquest required applying to the Attorney General's Office for permission to go to the High Court to ask judges to overturn the original conclusion. 

Two High Court judges agreed that a new inquest should take place "in the interests of justice" in December 2021. 

While they did not find that the original coroner, Dr Radcliffe, had behaved in a biased manner, she was variously described by the judges as being "unwise" and "close to being intemperate." Her questioning of one witness was said to be "close to the borderline between robustness and unacceptability."

The BBC approached Dr Radcliffe for comment at the time, but she did not respond.

The second inquest, which the family described as being "thorough, detailed and compassionate", took place during three weeks at Surrey Coroner's Court. 

The whole process, including the High Court challenge and legal fees, has cost Hayden's parents about £250,000. 

Tum Nguyen, a social media executive, said "The cost doesn't compare to the injustice so everything we did was completely right. I think it was incumbent on us to do it because I do know there are other families out there who can't necessarily afford to do what we did."

Hayden's mother Alex, 48, who owns a software company, says other families may also be too immersed in grief to fight for answers.

She said: "You are trying to deal with your grief, and when negligence is involved, that adds a whole extra layer that you then have to process. So, for other families, it might not be possible financially, but also it might not be possible because of the grieving process."

The couple believe the legal steps they took will allow other families to argue that coroners need to put the bereaved family at the heart of every inquest, allowing Hayden's name to live on. 

They also hope the second inquest will allow them to fully grieve the loss of their son.

Alex added: "The coroner has opened the possibility that we can put this to rest now. Having an honest appraisal of what happened on the night Hayden died and seeing the majority of the medical team involved actually be accountable and admit their errors and show that they'd made learnings was quite healing."

Chief executive for Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Lesley Watts, said: "We are deeply sorry for the loss of baby Hayden and offer our condolences to his family.

"We remain committed to learning from any findings to improve our practices and ensure the highest standards of care for every patient."