Dr. Jonathan Cusack versus the General Medical Council

By SAURABH JHA   I spoke with Dr. Jonathan Cusack, consultant neonatologist at Leicester Royal Infirmary (LRI), and former supervisor and mentor of Dr. Bawa-Garba, the trainee pediatrician convicted of manslaughter for delayed diagnosis of fatal sepsis in Jack Adcock, a six-year-old boy with Down’s syndrome. We had drinks at The George, pub opposite the Royal Courts of Justice. In the first part of the interview we discussed the events on Friday February 18th, 2011, the day of Jack presented to LRI. In the second part of the interview we talk about the events after fatal Friday – how the crown prosecution service got involved, the trial, the manslaughter charge, the tribunal and the General Medical Council.   The Role of Dr. O’Riordan Saurabh Jha (SJ): After Jack’s death what was Dr. Bawa-Garba’s immediate reaction? Jonathan Cusack (JC): I think it’s one of those moments one neither forgets nor recalls. I imagine the most overwhelming feeling was one of incredulity. How and why did Jack decompensate? It’d have struck her as physiologically implausible. Though she was experiencing that grief familiar to all pediatricians when a child dies, she was trying to understand why. She didn’t know that he died from Group A Streptococcal septicemia, then. SJ: She had no idea of the storm brewing. JC: No one had any idea of the storm brewing, for quite some time. No one could have predicted the predicament we find ourselves in today. SJ: But did Dr. O’Riordan,...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: NHS #BawaGarba @roguerad Source Type: blogs