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Family handouts<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nTwo premature babies died within weeks of each other after neglect by a hospital, an inquest jury has found.<\/p>\n Westminster Coroners\u2019 Court heard Elena Ali and Sunny Parker-Propst were both given sodium nitrite instead of sodium bicarbonate in 2020 while under the care of staff at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.<\/p>\n On Monday they returned verdicts of unlawful killing contributed to by neglect for baby Sunny, and accidental death contributed to by neglect for baby Elena.<\/p>\n Lesley Watts, chief executive of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: \u201cWe apologise unreservedly for the failings in care provided to Elena and Sunny.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ms Watts added: \u201cWe took immediate action to put measures in place to prevent such tragic incidents from happening again.\u201d<\/p>\n The ten-day inquest was held by the senior coroner for Inner West London, Prof Fiona Wilcox.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Elena Ali was born prematurely on 16 April 2020 and her condition was classed as moderate. <\/p>\n Two days later, routine monitoring revealed she had too much acid in her blood, known as metabolic acidosis.<\/p>\n She was prescribed a sodium bicarbonate infusion, but was instead given a sodium nitrite infusion. <\/p>\n She died that day.<\/p>\n Sunny Parker-Propst was born prematurely two weeks later, on 30 April, and was transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for continuing care.<\/p>\n He was also prescribed a sodium bicarbonate infusion due to metabolic acidosis, but was given a sodium nitrite infusion <\/b>in error after it was wrongly stocked on the NICU and selected and administered by nursing staff.<\/p>\n He died on 9 May.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The coroner said the hospital\u2019s chief pharmacist admitted there had been a \u201ccomplete and total\u201d failure in checks within the pharmacy, which led to a box of sodium nitrite being issued instead of sodium bicarbonate.<\/p>\n Internal investigations within the pharmacy failed to identify who had issued the wrong drug, the inquest was told.<\/p>\n The unit’s neonatal nurse coordinator told the inquest she knew about a policy to check vials by picking them up and looking at them at eye level – but that she did not do this.<\/p>\n She accepted that if she had done so, she would have been able to see it was in fact sodium nitrite.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Elena\u2019s mother Selena Ali said: \u201cIt was so shocking when Elena first died, we were told she died cause of extreme prematurity.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was only 13 days later we got a call from the chief nurse to say, ‘we\u2019ve got bad news, there was a medication error’.\u201d<\/p>\n Sunny\u2019s mother Kerstin Propst says she couldn\u2019t believe this could happen to two babies.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s shocking – especially a big hospital like that, especially twice, it makes you think how many more things happen that people are not aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n The families\u2019 solicitor Frankie Rhodes said the verdict would hopefully give \u201csome closure\u201d to the families after four years, but highlighted a \u201ccatalogue of errors and basic failings from the nurses involved in both babies\u2019 care\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is shocking that these premature babies, some of the most vulnerable in society, were put at risk – and both Elena and Sunny needlessly lost their lives due to failures to do simple checks which are a fundamental part of a neonatal nurses\u2019 job,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
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Family handout<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Family](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/ae5f\/live\/4426ec50-3fa5-11ef-ac18-e9e918866dc8.jpg.webp\")
Family handout<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n‘How many more things?’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n