Fit 22-year-old son died in hospital with suspected sepsis regardless of his physician mom’s determined plea for life-saving antibiotics, inquest hears

A fit and healthy 22-year-old man died in hospital with suspected sepsis after medics repeatedly failed to act on his doctor mother’s desperate pleas for life-saving antibiotics, an inquest heard.

Nursing staff and medics treating William Hewes did not ensure he was given the appropriate medication, long after it was deduced he was suffering from the potentially fatal condition.

Emergency department registrar Dr Rebecca McMillan admitted she was not clear in giving instructions to administer antibiotics, a senior nurse said she forgot to check the specific medication required, and the nurse-in-charge failed to ensure antibiotics had been administered.

Dr McMillan signalled she had to persuade the intensive care unit to take Mr Hewes in their charge from the resuscitation ward as she became increasingly concerned about his worsening state, where he became cold to the touch and lost his sight.

Mr Hewes, a history and politics university student at Leeds, died 12 hours after being admitted to Homerton Hospital in east London on January 21 2023.

His mother, Homerton consultant paediatrician Dr Deborah Burns, said she believed her son was let down, and that his treatment by her hospital colleagues was not proactive.

Dr McMillan wept as she described her anguish about the night he died, saying she wished she had done things differently.

She said: ‘I needed to be clear about who I give instructions to, knowing who’s going to perform something I asked.’

She also regretted not making it clear to Dr Burns that she understood the severity of Mr Hewes’ condition, admitting she thought from the moment she first saw the patient there was a chance he was going to die.

Mr Hewes had been suffering headaches, a fever and blurred vision which Dr Burns believed meant her son was showing signs of sepsis, a potentially deadly reaction to infection, and told colleagues as such when she arrived at the hospital shortly after midnight.

But Mr Hewes was instead treated with fluids, morphine, paracetamol, and medication to prevent nausea – despite nursing staff identifying signs of sepsis almost immediately.

The inquest into Mr Hewes’ death, at Bow Coroner’s Court in east London, heard nurse-in-charge Luke Brown thought the patient showed signs of sepsis and knew he would have to be given antibiotics ‘as soon as possible’.

He said he trusted his team of senior nurses to ensure the medication was given.

But band five nurse Marianela Balatico failed to ask Dr McMillan for the specifics regarding the antibiotics, saying it ‘slipped my mind’, the court heard.

He was only given antibiotics at 1.25am – nearly 90 minutes after he arrived at hospital, and well over an hour after medics identified the medication was likely required.

Mr Brown said: ‘To look at Mr Hewes at the end of the bed, he looked quite unwell. He was quite agitated when he came in, he was in a lot of pain.’

Mr Hewes was assessed by a doctor minutes later.

Mr Brown said: ‘I think there was a recognition he had sepsis at that point.’

Mr Brown said he saw various treatments being administered to the increasingly unwell patient, but not antibiotics – despite this being crucial to treating adults with sepsis.

Lawyer Neil Sheldon KC, representing the victim’s family, said: ‘I think there were quite a few things that were not done in this hour that should have been done.’

Mr Brown replied: ‘I agree.’

Mr Sheldon said: ‘Do you take responsibility?

‘I take responsibility as the nurse in charge.’

He said he assumed antibiotics had been given within the hour, but later learned it had not been during a debrief.

The inquest heard Dr McMillan said she thought she had given instructions to her nursing team about antibiotics, but later discovered her orders had not been carried out.

She said: ‘I recall standing outside resus room with (nurse Balatico) and having a conversation and asked if I was okay and said I was really upset.

‘We had a conversation along the lines of we didn’t understand how this happened.’

Dr McMillan said she was unaware the medication had not been given, and nurse Balatico said she did not know the specific type and dosage of antibiotics.

Dr McMillan also suggested sending Mr Hewes to intensive care, but he remained on the resus ward.

Coroner Mary Hassell asked: ‘Did you think you had been given the brush off?

The witness replied: ‘It’s hard to say when you’ve not worked with a colleague a lot.

‘It’s a skill picking up the sort of vibe you’re talking about.

‘I don’t think it was completely clear whether that was the case. I thought it wasn’t completely unreasonable that he stayed in the resus room.’

Dr Luke Lake, a medical registrar on call at Homerton Hospital, described the moment he realised William had not been antibiotics.

He said: ‘The first I knew of William was when I got a phone call from Doctor McMillian. On the phone she immediately conveyed her concerns for the patient. She also explained the relationship of Dr Burns to William.

‘I recognised how unwell William was. I was anxious about him going to ICU. I thought if this didn’t something catastrophic might happen.

‘It was around 1.11am when I first arrived to his bedside. I looked at the computer and could see that antibiotics were not on the chart.

‘I introduced myself to Dr Burns and was concerned that antibiotics had not been given. I left to see if there was someone who could clarify this.’

He said he asked a nurse if William had been given antibiotics to which she replied ‘no’ as they had ‘not been prescribed’.

Dr Lake explained that a plan was then made to rectify this immediately.

However, the court heard that Mr Hewes’ condition rapidly deteriorated between 2am and 3am on January 21.

Mr Hewes was 6ft 6in and weighed 105kg (around 16 stones) when he was admitted to hospital shortly after midnight.

The inquest was attended by various members of Mr Hewes’ family, including his parents and siblings.

His mother, Dr Burns, previously expressed her concerns about what happened on the night William died.

She said in a statement provided by her lawyers, she said: ‘I was present throughout his admission. I witnessed him receiving inadequate care despite my raising concerns. I was not listened to at the time and I watched him die.

‘Since then, I have met with almost two years of resistance and lack of engagement. This has taken a terrible toll on me and my family and added another layer of pain to our grief.

‘All I was asking was for an open, honest and thorough investigation to take place so that vital lessons could be learnt from William’s death. I have a personal moral duty and professional obligation to act on what I witnessed.

‘The added dimension is that it is my workplace. I wanted to help prevent what happened to William happening to other young people, to give them the best chances of survival to be able to continue to live their lives, to contribute to society, to love and be loved, as William very much was.’

Mr Brown said he did not hear Dr Burns repeatedly telling nursing staff he needed antibiotics urgently.

The Mail has long campaigned for better awareness and treatment of the deadly condition.

The inquest continues.