DEATH OF CHILD IN HOSPITAL

Southland Times, Issue 24357, 11 February 1941, Page 4

DEATH OF CHILD IN HOSPITAL

(United Press Association) AUCKLAND, February 10. “It is only in unfortunate cases such as this that we are able to get things done for others.” said the Coroner, Mr F. K. Hunt, at the inquest into the death of John Blake Bishop, aged five years, who died in the Auckland Hospital on January 31. “I am going to recommend to the hospital board that jackets like the one the child had on be improved, by the attaching of tapes which can be tied to the sides of a cot to prevent the child turning over.” The child, a son of Mr K. Bishop, a farmer of Pollock, was admitted to hospital suffering with eczema. It was explained that the child, when in its cot, had been wearing a jacket fastened at the back of the neck, the child’s arms being inside the jacket, to prevent him from scratching himself with his hands. The child had been lying on his back and had evidently turned over and had been asphyxiated. The nurse had fed the child at 5.15 p.m. and at 9 p.m. had found him dead in his cot. Miriam Makgill, a nursing sister at the hospital gave evidence that at the time of the child’s death there were 28 children in the ward and the staff was working short-handed. Mr Hunt expressed the opinion that the child should not have been left unattended from 5.15 p.m. to 9 p.m. He asked Dr Guthrie to make inquiries concerning the type of pillow used by the Plunket Society and the doctor said he would bring the matter before the proper authorities. Mr Hunt said it was not part of his duty to place blame on anybody. It would be wrong for him to do so. “I can only find that the child died from asphyxia. I think the attention of the board should be drawn to the under-staffing at the hospital.”