Baby Lucas' parents on doctors' 'catastrophic' overdose
Updated on 24 June 2010
Anna Holzscheiter wept as she told Channel 4 News how she watched her baby die from a massive overdose of drugs, prescribed accidently by NHS doctors, and how she will not rest until hospital systems change to ensure the safety of other children.
An inquest has recorded that baby Lucas, who was seven and a half months old, died as a result of an accidental overdose, at Homerton Hospital in Hackney, of which neglect was a contributing factor.
"We were just sitting there and encouraging him to survive. Nobody said anything - we were just sitting next to him and at a certain point we said that they should stop the heart massage because we could see that he wasn't living any more actually," Ms Holzscheiter said.
Anna and her partner Benjamin Stachursky said they were "completely speechless" after doctors told them they had realised they had given baby Lucas a massive overdose of an anti-epilepsy drug that would be fatal.
Doctors told the couple that they had just minutes left to say goodbye to their son.
Mr Stachursky said: "We were sitting behind a curtain and could hear the doctors at work and at some point we realised that no one was speaking any longer.
"Then after a while the consultant just came to talk to us and told us that there were serious problems with Lucas' heart rate and they were trying their best to stabilise him but that there was a probability that he wouldn't make it.
Baby Lucas: full medical details
According to a police report baby Lucas was given between nine and 12 times the correct recommended dose of a toxic drug for a child of his age and weight.
Doctors involved in the case were banned from prescribing drugs immediately after the event, and have only been allowed to safely continue after internal assessments.
An inquest into the death of Lucas concluded today that his death was the result of an accidental overdose, of which neglect was a contributing factor.
Read more here
"That they had just realised that he had been given a massive overdose of Phenytoin and that this was a very serious issue because it is a drug which can't be taken out of the system or stopped."
"You remember every single detail," Lucas' mother said, "and you would rather prefer to erase it from your memory."
"We were completely speechless. We were continuously told that he was in a critical condition but that they had everything under control and they were just following protocol, and that he would be taken to an intensive care unit in a different hospital.
"We were just so shocked to hear that. It was basically at a time when Lucas was just dying, or they were trying to reanimate him and get his heart going again, but it was actually at a time when the whole process was irreversible," she added.
Mr Stachursky said he did not realise how bad things were until hospital staff asked him if he would like to phone his family. He said: "We were told we could, if we wanted call our family, sometime during the night at two or two thirty in the morning. We went to the parents room and called our parents. Having to explain to them what had happened and hearing their reaction was just the moment when I really realised what had really happened. This is something that keeps on going through my head."
Lucas, who suffered from Sturge-Weber Syndrome was a "very healthy child", apart from the syndrome the couple said.
But last May he was admitted to hospital vomiting, fitting, and "really miserable". Doctors initially treated him for a stomach bug, and later thought he might have meningitis, but following a very obvious fit, they realised he was having an epileptic seizure, Ms Holzscheiter said.
"I believe that parents have an intuition, we tried to point them to his very complex congenital problem," she said. He was administered with an anti-epilepsy drug which did not work and then was given a new drug.
Ms Holzscheiter said: "This drug - no one was familiar prescribing or administering (it) to children. They also knew because it was in a special cupboard that it was a particular drug with potentially very serious side effects. So I would just assume that because it's not Calpol or Ibuprofen or something, you would be extra careful in checking and administering, preparing the drug when you are dealing with something you've never dealt with before."
Police later found that Lucas was given a massive overdose of the drug - up to 12 times as much within six hours, as he should have been given over the course of 24 hours.
Mr Stachursky said: "If you look at what was said in the course of the hearing, that there was a whole series of errors committed and at any time it would have been possible to stop or remedy the error. So if someone had just picked that up - this should have been stopped immediately by the registrar. Then the nurses should have realised. Everyone concerned should have realised at some point. But no one picked it up."
The couple, who are originally from Germany, hope that the inquest will change the way doctors are assessed, and how they communicate.
Ms Holzscheiter said: "We lived in the area and we had many friends in the area with children the same age as Lucas. And I know that - in the case of an emergency - they might be taken to Homerton Hospital - and that's also why the hospital, but also some processes that go beyond that, the hospital or the trust itself, just see that there need to be improvements in how the doctors are assessed to enter the hospital, with how people communicate with each other, that hierarchies in hospitals are essential to how hospitals work.
"That all these things will hopefully change, and change very quickly, we are now a year since Lucas' death. I just hope that the hospital will improve its performance so that other people are safe, and other children are safe."
