An NHS trust has admitted failings in the care of a two-year-old boy who died from sepsis just four days after doctors misdiagnosed his condition as constipation. Hudson Cole Perrins passed away on June 27, 2024, after his father initially took him to New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton with severe stomach pain.
Doctors at the hospital identified hardness in Hudson's stomach and concluded he was suffering from constipation, administering suppositories and an enema before sending him home. However, his parents returned him to the hospital the following day when he began experiencing seizures and remained in visible pain.
Hudson was subsequently transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit at Birmingham Children's Hospital, where he died after his parents consented to turn off his life support. His official cause of death was a brain injury resulting from urosepsis, a severe infection that occurred when a urinary tract infection spread to his kidneys.
The toddler, who had a history of heart defects and kidney issues, was a month away from his third birthday. His mother, Kayleigh Taundry, who worked as a nurse for the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust for 18 years, has advocated for two years, maintaining that the hospital staff wrongly diagnosed her son with constipation without adequate evidence.
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust has reached an out-of-court settlement with Hudson's family. The trust acknowledged failures in its care but disputes that these failures directly led to the toddler's death. The family had argued that hospital staff should have tested for a urine infection and did not provide sufficient pain relief. They also claimed that Hudson's catheter was not adequately monitored, leading to a failure to notice it was not draining.
The Trust admitted that Hudson should have received pain relief sooner and that medical staff should have monitored the fluid drainage from his catheter. However, they denied that their initial diagnosis or decision not to investigate further constituted a breach of duty.
"Nothing will ever bring Hudson back, but it means a great deal to finally have it accepted that he should have been given pain relief and that his catheter should have been checked properly," Taundry stated. "I hope this settlement, and the failures it has brought to light, mean lessons are genuinely learned so another family doesn't have to go through what we have."
Michael Portman-Hann, a partner at law firm FBC Manby Bowdler representing the family, commented that these were "basic elements of care that were missed." He added, "While the Trust maintains that these failures didn't affect the eventual outcome for Hudson, his family will always be left wondering whether he suffered more than he should have in his final days, and that is something no parent should have to carry."