Coroner gives legal warning to witness in fresh inquest for baby boy who died

Independent

11-02-2025

A coroner has given a warning about potentially incriminating evidence at a fresh inquest into the death of a premature baby.
Robert Sowersby, assistant coroner for Avon, was asking questions about samples that appear to have been taken following the death of Ben Condon, who died aged just two months.
Ben died in the paediatric intensive care unit of Bristol Children's Hospital on April 17 2015, six days after being admitted there with a respiratory illness.
An inquest in June 2016 initially recorded Ben's death as being caused by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), metapneumovirus (hMPV) and prematurity.
But the following year, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust admitted a failure to give Ben timely antibiotics for a pseudomonas bacterial infection had contributed to his death.
High Court judges quashed the original inquest conclusion in 2021 and ordered a fresh hearing, which began at Avon Coroner's Court last Monday, following campaigning by Ben's parents Allyn and Jenny Condon.
On Tuesday, Mr Sowersby was questioning Dr Matthew Christopherson about a computer printout of investigations undertaken in respect to Ben.
The coroner said: 'It appears from this document that there are some samples dated April 18 or April 19, so after Ben's death.
'Post-mortem sampling is regulated. I'm going to ask you questions about this.'
The coroner told Dr Christopherson that the doctor did not need to answer his questions if he believed that he could incriminate himself.
He asked: 'Did you take any post-mortem samples?'
Dr Christopherson replied: 'No, I did not.'
Mr Sowersby then asked: 'Did you know about any samples taken from Ben after his death?'
Dr Christopherson said: 'No, I did not.'
The inquest previously heard how Ben's parents Allyn and Jenny Condon were told a post-mortem examination was not necessary following his death, leading to his body being cremated.
But they later discovered that four swabs had been taken from Ben's body and sent for analysis after his death.
Jennifer MacLeod, representing the Condon family, asked Dr Christopherson about requests for screening of the swabs which included fluid and skin.
Ms MacLeod said it was later stated by a different clinician, Dr Richard Brindle, in an internal email that the swab tests had been requested to 'add useful information about the cause of death'.
Dr Christopherson repeated that he had no knowledge of the swabs, adding: 'The last time I saw Ben was with Mr and Mrs Condon as I left the department that evening.'
Ben's parents earlier told the hearing they would not have cremated their son if they had known that the swabs had been taken, that he had a bacterial infection, or that he had been diagnosed with ARDS.
Mr Sowersby queried why Dr Christopherson and a colleague had been 'confident' to record Ben's cause of death as ARDS caused by hMPV and prematurity, given concerns that Ben may have developed a secondary infection.
Dr Christopherson replied: 'It was the sequence of events. He presented with hMPV, if he hadn't had that, he wouldn't have become sick, he wouldn't have developed ARDS and the subsequent complications of that.'
He added that he was not aware of results identifying the pseudomonas infection at the time of Ben's death.
When asked about the death certificate, he replied: 'The culture at the time was to complete, where we felt able to, the administrative sides of a child's death.
'This is because we recognised that the death of a child is tragic. The aim was to minimise as much distress as possible.'
On Tuesday, the inquest heard that a document – disclosed to family lawyers shortly before the beginning of the fresh inquest – revealed concerns about a possible infection on April 15.
The document showed that a blood test marked 'urgent' had been ordered for Ben on that date, with 'query sepsis' listed as the reason for the test.
Mr Sowersby asked Dr Christopherson whether sepsis was a differential diagnosis – a list of conditions that could be behind a patient's symptoms – at that time.
Dr Christopherson replied: 'I expect it was on the differential diagnosis list. I have no more specifics to add to that.'
Ben was born in February 2015 at 29 weeks gestation and spent seven weeks in neonatal intensive care at Southmead Hospital before being discharged home to Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, on April 7.
His parents took him to Weston General Hospital on April 10, after he became unwell following cold-like symptoms, and he was transferred to Bristol Children's Hospital the following day.
The baby, who weighed 5lbs, was diagnosed with hMPV and later found to have ARDS. He suffered a cardiac arrest on April 17 and was pronounced dead at 9.07pm that day.
The inquest continues.