Bolton: Five-day inquest begins after family demand answers

Kingsley Olasupo was born, along with his twin sister Princess, at the Royal Bolton Hospital on April 8, 2019, but he tragically died on April 18 after suffering from an infection.

A full inquest, which opened in Bolton yesterday, heard that histopathologist Dr Melanie Newbould carried out a post-mortem examination and found that there were signs of brain swelling, which meant that “something had happened in his brain”, and that Kingsley had a very “severe illness prior to his death”.

Dr Newbould said: “His organs had failed because of a severe illness that had developed.

“Severe changes happened due to a lack of oxygen and lack of blood.

“Kingsley’s final cause of death was multiple organ failure, extensive cerebral cirrhosis, brain swelling, and bacterial infection Meningoencephalitis, and sepsis.”

Amy Leigh was one of the midwives on duty on April 8 and noted that Kingsley had meconium, which usually happens before the baby starts to feed and digest milk.

Due to hypoglycaemia being present, Amy said an observation of 24 hours was carried out.

Amy said: “Both seemed well and were walking and crying at one point.”

After weighing the twins and checking their temperatures, Amy became concerned with Kingsley’s temperature and brought an incubator over to the post-natal ward to increase his temperature.

The inquest heard that she initially thought that the temperature may be as a result of the cold environment of the delivery room.

Another observation Amy made was that Kingsley was also struggling to feed, but thought this was because he was hypo thermic, and says these were the guidelines she followed.

Amy added: “If this was persistent then I would have investigated.

“I fed Kingsley as quickly as possible and as soon as I was able to and check blood sugar levels, as well as getting an incubator.”

Miss Green representing the family asked if Amy was aware of the NICE guidelines recognising and assessing early onset neonatal infection after birth, where if two or more non red flag indicators were present, that there would be screening for infection and a course of antibiotics.

Amy added: “I don’t think I was aware at the time where the baby would get to be screened unfortunately.”

Nadine Wilson was the midwife on the second day of Kingsley’s life, and she received a hand over from Lucy McCann on April 9.

At this stage, Nadine was concerned about Kingsley’s temperature and “slow feeding”.

Nadine later developed a chart to monitor the frequency of Kingsley’s feeds over 24 hours, where she would report to the paediatrician if this became worse.

After noticing that the temperature still was not being maintained, and Kingsley was still struggling to feed, Nadine says she spoke to the paediatrician who advised her on the best course of action.

She noted that no one had been to examine Kingsley at the time.

She added: “I felt that they should have come and checked the baby out.

“They thought his temperature was dropping because of coming out of the incubator without any clothes on.

“They suggested a sleep suit that would keep him warm and maintain his temperature better.”

In a statement, Kingsley’s father, Tunde Olasupo, and his mother, Nicola Daley said: “Sadly, on April 18, 2019, our son Kingsley Olasupo passed away.

“Both babies were born naturally, and everything appeared to be fine with the babies.”

Tunde raised a series of concerns in relation to Kingsley’s treatment and care, asking why there was “no treatment plan in place” and a line of communication as to “what was going on”.

Although both twins were born healthy, they were slightly premature at 35 weeks.

Kingsley’s mum Nicola and Tunde felt the hospital were “giving up on him” when they had to turn his life support machine off.

The parents said that he is “much-loved by all and will be sadly missed”.

Area coroner for Manchester West, Peter Sigee said: “Any inquest is hard, but non more so than the death of a baby.

“I offer my condolences to you.”

This forms part of a five-day inquest, which is expected to continue tomorrow morning and last until Friday.