Premature Baby Boy Dies of Dehydration from being put on a Saline Drip.

The Telegraph reports that a baby boy died earlier this month in the Queen's Medical Centre hospital in Nottingham after being put on a saline drip which apparently left him dehydrated.

This absolutely APPALS me. - A saline drip is a means of putting salt (sodium chloride) and water into the bloodstream by way of a vein. Doctors appear to believe that this hydrates the body. - It doesn't. -

A saline drip dehydrates the body. This dehydration could also be described as Salt Poisoning.

Salt is extremely harmful to small children and especially to babies, and this poor baby was premature and so even more vulnerable to harm from salt. I hope that those responsible for putting this baby on a saline drip will be named and will be severely punished so as to draw attention to the serious harm that salt causes to babies.

I believe there are horrifying parallels between this tragedy and the death of 3 year old Christian Blewitt in December 2002. - See the Saturday, March 03, 2007 entry on http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html See also the Wednesday, October 15, 2008 entry on http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

In both of these sad deaths a saline solution was administered to a small child in hospital. In both cases the child died because of too much salt in the body. Health professionals seem unaware of the lethal possibilities of intravenous administration of saline solution to babies and small children.

I have a website about how salt is harmful to groups of people who are vulnerable to it. One of the vulnerable groups is children. - Here is an extract from my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html about children and salt:

"When children become fat it is essentially because they are eating salty food. Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food."

Here is a highly disturbing extract from the Telegraph report:

"Peter Walsh, the chief executive of Action against Medical Accidents, said

"This is a worrying incident. Research shows us that around 10 per cent of hospital admission result in adverse incidents. These are very alarming statistics.

"But more alarming is that the real figure is even higher since many errors go unnoticed by hospital staff. ""

Another example, from before the big scandal broke, of Stafford Hospital managers covering up abuse and neglect of patients.

The Sunday Telegraph reports that a nurse provided senior managers with details of her concerns in November 2007 - 16 months before the scandal was revealed - and that her report said that doctors and nurses were being ordered to discharge people who were critically ill and to lie about how long others were waiting.

There will be a debate in parliament on Monday, which will hear demands for a public inquiry into the deaths of hundreds of patients at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust, where standards of care were appalling.

I recommend you read the Sunday Telegraph report. It has a wealth of detail.

The National Patient Safety Agency reports that many hospital fatalities are avoidable.

Hundreds of hospital fatalities 'avoidable' - Telegraph

Extract:

"One third of deaths in hospital investigated by a patient safety watchdog could have been avoided, claims a report released today.

The National Patient Safety Agency looked into 1,804 fatal hospital incidents reported to it in 2005. It found that 576 were "potentially avoidable" if there had been better communication between staff, faster recognition of the patient's deteriorating state, improved training and more accurate interpretation of test results.

Some 425 of the deaths investigated by the NPSA in 2005 were in acute or general hospitals. Of these, 71 were reported to be related to diagnostic errors, in 64 cases the patient's deteriorating condition was not recognised or not acted upon, and 43 involved a problem with resuscitation after cardiac arrest.

The remainder were connected to medication errors, suicide or still-birth."

Many thousands of deaths both in and out of hospital are avoidable - and the suffering that precedes them. - If only the public were to be told the truth about obesity and if only the medical profession would stop giving the dangerous, futile, counterproductive advice that to lose excess weight it is necessary to eat less/to eat fewer calories/to cut down on fat/carbohydrates, etc! - Obesity is caused by fluid retention, not by overeating.

Obesity is not caused by overeating. It is caused by the conjunction of salt sensitivity and sodium intake, which leads to fluid retention.

It is over 50 years since steroids were first prescribed and it is beyond belief that most doctors are still unaware in practice of their potential for causing sodium and water retention and morbid obesity and the many other serious health problems attendant on these...

Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 BMJ article for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

It is commonly accepted now, except by the 'experts', that less than 5% of dieters actually lose weight, and most gain weight as a result of dieting. - Even the ones who manage to lose weight do not usually improve their health. - See Overweight who diet risk dying earlier, says study for a report in The Guardian of Monday, June 27th 2005. It is about a huge research study of nearly 3000 people over a period of 18 years. The study found that overweight people who diet to reach a healthier weight are more likely to die young than those who remain fat. It also found that dieting causes physiological damage that in the long term can outweigh the benefits of the weight loss.

Contributing to the increase in obesity we have the widespread prescribing of steroids and HRT and other drugs which cause weight gain, and the failure of doctors to adhere to the protocols connected with the prescribing and monitoring of steroids. But pre-eminent, in my opinion, is the catastrophically damaging calorie-reduction advice that continues to be given despite such a wealth of evidence that it is bad advice.

Another possible factor is the increase in the amount of oestrogen in the water table.

Salt produces weight gain only in vulnerable people, i.e.

1. People whose veins are weak because of immaturity (babies, children),

2. People whose veins are relaxed or weak because of steroids, HRT, amitriptyline or certain other prescribed drugs, too readily prescribed, often in very high dose.

3. People whose natural hormone levels are altered (e.g. pregnant women).

4. 'Slimmers' - People whose blood vessel walls have been weakened by 'slimming' - i.e. eating insufficient food.


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions

advice for pregnant mothers

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free...