AN independent inquiry was yesterday reported to have found a hospital
guilty of sending home a baby with a needle lodged inside his body.
However, officials with the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, at the
centre of the dispute over baby Ben Jones, refused to publish details of
the inquiry's findings.
Mr Brian Milstead, the trust's chief executive, said that the inquiry
was incomplete and it could not be finished until Ben's parents handed
over the needle they allegedly discovered sticking out of his back.
Steve and Andrea Jones, who are locked in a row with Treliske
Hospital, said they were vindicated by the reported findings of the
inquiry.
The BBC said preliminary findings showed that Ben was sent home with
the needle inside him and that doctors misinterpreted an X-ray, which
should have shown up the needle.
A paediatric registrar is reported to have studied the X-ray, but not
shown it to a qualified radiologist, who might have spotted the needle.
Faced with the claims, Mr Milstead insisted he could not act on the
basis of incomplete evidence. ''Our primary concern is to get to the
bottom of this incident as quickly as possible,'' he told BBC Radio 4's
The World at One.
Mr Jones, 31, a Royal Navy Lieutenant, and his 24-year-old wife, from
Helston, Cornwall, said the 1[1/2]-inch needle came out of their
premature Christmas Day baby's back, one week after his January 12
discharge from the hospital in Truro.
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