A sick new-born baby could have been killed by a hospital's drug prescription of fifteen times the correct dose, his shocked parents have been informed.
Gareth and Heather Jennings say only a community nurse's intervention saved their six-week-old son Jadon from a "potentially fatal" overdose of the antibiotic prescribed at Royal Bolton Hospital to treat an infection, the Manchester Evening News reports. Heather, 37, gave birth to Jadon, her first child with Gareth, 36, at the hospital on March 6. He said the birth was problematic from the start, with misjudged labour and a ruptured placenta.
Just a month after he was born, Jadon fell ill with a high temperature and was taken to hospital. It was first thought he had contracted a bug due to cross-contamination, before doctors suggested he might need to receive an IV drip for suspected meningitis. It was later decided to treat Jadon for the initial infection instead and on April 14, the hospital prescribed the antibiotic clindamycin with instructions to give him three 5ml spoonfuls, four times a day. As prescribed, the baby would have received 60ml of the medication a day.
