‘Unacceptable' delayed scan could have prevented baby's death, inquest hears

Independent

29-05-2025

A surgeon has said there were 'unacceptable' delays in obtaining a scan that could have saved the life of a one-year-old boy.
Archie Squire died from heart failure in the early hours of November 23 2023, after successive cardiac arrests, days after his first birthday.
He was suffering from a rare, undiagnosed heart defect in which the heart's lower half is reversed, an inquest heard.
On Thursday, paediatric cardiac surgeon Professor David Anderson was called to give independent medical evidence at Kent and Medway Coroner's Court in Maidstone.
He told the court the delay after Archie was referred for an echocardiogram by a GP on October 6 was 'just too long'.
The referral to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (QEQM) Hospital in Margate, Kent, did not result in an echo scan taking place before Archie died.
Prof Anderson, who holds honorary consultant positions in several countries, said: 'If I showed this audience an echo of a heart pumping normally and an echo of a heart not pumping normally, it is absolutely barn-door obvious.
'An echo in advance of his final admission would have enabled the management to be appropriate for his situation.'
While the scan would not guarantee an immediate diagnosis, it would have shown 'poor function' of Archie's heart, the inquest heard.
A report prepared by Prof Anderson said: 'If his diagnosis had been correctly made, he almost certainly would not have died when he did.'
It added that 'the delay in obtaining an echo was unacceptable'.
He told the coroner: 'I would hope that it would have prevented him from collapsing into the situation from which he could not be resuscitated.
'We would not have been advising his family that he would have lived a long and happy life and he would have died at an old age, we would have been very, very guarded with our prognosis.'
Archie is thought to have suffered from undiagnosed congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (CCTGA), which has been referenced in his medical cause of death, the inquest heard.
Most practitioners will go through their entire working lives without seeing or having to treat CCTGA, Prof Anderson said.
'It's very rare indeed,' he added.
Archie did not receive an echocardiogram during the month and a half after being referred by a GP to QEQM, or during his final hospital admission.
Prof Anderson said: 'If he had an echo on November 21, which I'm certain would have shown very poor function and I suspect such severe poor function that he would have been referred to Evelina (London Children's Hospital).
'I can only imagine that the function was really pretty awful by this stage and not something that a local hospital would take on to manage.'
It is unusual for someone with CCTGA to go into cardiac failure so early in their life, the inquest heard.
According to the Adult Congenital Heart Association, just 0.5-1% of babies born with heart defects have CCTGA.
The inquest is expected to conclude on Friday.