Police to review case of fatal calcium dose given to baby, Abbie Hattam, daughter of Dawn and Jason Hattam, from Truro, Cornwall

Police to review case of fatal calcium dose given to baby

Extract:

"Police will re-examine the case of an under-pressure medic accused of giving a fatal dose of calcium to a baby girl, after an inquest jury decided she had been unlawfully killed.

Five-month-old twin Abbie Hattam died following heart surgery during which she was said to have been given 10 times the normal dose of calcium by Richard Downes, a medic at Bristol Children's hospital.

During the inquest it was claimed that Mr Downes' department was under-staffed and he argued with the surgeon before the operation because he wanted it cancelled. But Mr Downes refused to give evidence at the inquest, to the dismay of Abbie's parents, Dawn and Jason Hattam, from Truro, Cornwall."

It seems very wrong that this medic is allowed to refuse to give evidence, doesn't it? - Should it not be a condition of employment that health professionals give evidence, when required to, at an inquest into the death of a patient whose care was their responsibility?