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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Lewis Finney & Douglas Whitbread

'Doctors nearly killed my son after he was given 15 times recommended antibiotic dosage'

A "furious" dad claims doctors could have killed his six-week-old baby - after the tot was given medicine that was fifteen times the recommended dosage.

Gareth Jennings, 36, was told there could have been "catastrophic" consequences for little Jadon if he hadn't asked a community nurse if the amount was correct.

The carer said his son had been prescribed the antibiotic drug clindamycin after doctors at Royal Bolton hospital diagnosed him with a bug last Thursday (April 14).

But he claims that medics told him to give the tot four 15ml oral servings of the drug per day, when the correct amount should have been just 1ml.

Gareth later asked for a second opinion and was informed that the boy would have been "dead" within a week if he had followed the doctor's initial guidance.

Gareth with baby son Jadon at Bolton Hospital (Gareth Jennings / SWNS)
Jadon was prescribed the antibiotic drug clindamycin (Gareth Jennings / SWNS)

Gareth said: "I called the community nurse to come grab his stuff and if he hadn't come, we'd have started on the medication, and he would have been dead by the end of the week.'"

"Someone needs picking up on this. They need to be retrained or something. I'm furious."

Gareth, from Bolton, said he had concerns about the care his wife, Heather Jennings, was receiving at the hospital after she gave birth to Jadon on March 6 this year.

He said the hospital misjudged the state of her labour multiple times, with the lad ultimately being delivered using forceps, and Heather requiring "god knows how many stitches"."

In the weeks that followed, Gareth claims that hospital staff initially thought his baby had contracted a bug due to cross-contamination.

They then changed their mind, deciding to treat him instead for meningitis on an IV drip for two weeks, before performing another U-turn back to their original diagnosis.

On Thursday, April 14, Jadon was prescribed Clindamycin by the hospital, and his parents were told to administer 15ml of the drug to him per day.

But the day before he was due to start the treatment, the couple asked their community nurse for a second opinion due to their ongoing concerns.

Gareth described how the nurse had worriedly asked if they had already started Jadon on the drugs.

She then explained that if they had gone ahead, the consequences would have been "catastrophic".

Both mother and baby are recovering fine, but Gareth has now sworn never to go back to the hospital, which he believes put his son's life in danger.

He said: "I am not going back to that hospital now. He could be half-dead, and I'd take him to Salford instead.

"They got loads of things wrong. It's been a farce."

Dr Francis Andrews, medical director at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said: "I'm sorry that the Jennings family received incorrect advice about their medication and know that it must have been really concerning.

"We are working with them to fully understand their concerns around the care they have received as a family, so that we can establish any learning, and prevent anything similar happening in the future."

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