European journal of pediatrics
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This study aimed to analyse the number, nature and costs of successful litigation claims against the National Health Service in England involving fatalities in children. A record of claims involving fatalities in children from 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2011 was obtained from the National Health Service Litigation Authority. The closed cases where compensation had been paid to the claimant were analysed. One hundred thirty out of a total of 234 closed cases (56 %) resulted in payment of compensation. The commonest causes of a fatality were delayed/failed diagnosis (58), delayed/failed treatment (19), complications related to procedures/operations (17), poor overall quality of care (7), medication errors (6), inappropriate medical advice leading to delayed presentation (6) and communication errors (5). The commonest diagnoses involved were sepsis (17), meningitis (11), cardiac defects (8), gastrointestinal illness (8), intracranial bleed (4), meningococcal septicaemia (3) and malignancy (3). The total cost of litigation was £8,143,342 with cost per case ranging from £1607 to £790,555 with a mean of £62,641. The death of a child is a tragedy. When an error has occurred, this causes further suffering to the family and to the health care professionals involved. ⋯ This data suggest areas where training could be improved, and by learning from such errors we can diminish such occurrences in the future and improve patient safety.
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Acute bronchiolitis and asthma are respiratory tract diseases of childhood that are characterized by wheezing. However, the diagnosis of asthma is difficult in patients younger than 2 years. We evaluated the association between asthma or acute bronchiolitis and various risk factors in young children. ⋯ Sex, urbanization, and geographic region all showed significant associations with acute bronchiolitis and asthma. Based on the asthma-free survival curves of Kaplan-Meier analysis in our study, young children with acute bronchiolitis should be monitored for 2 years to prevent them from developing asthma. This was the first study to evaluate the length of time for which acute bronchiolitis poses a risk for the development of asthma in young children.