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.