GP didn’t contribute to baby’s death — inquest

Doctor failed to make house call

A GP who lied to cover up the fact he failed to visit a poorly baby in Chadderton, who later died of meningitis, did not contribute to his death, a coroner has ruled.

Dr Jason Tahghighi was on call for private firm Go To Doc and was asked to visit the home of five-month-old Leo Radcliffe, in Chadderton.

However, Tahghighi did not attend, leaving two voice messages on the mobile phone of Leo’s mother, Katie Corry, saying he was “very busy”, and later lying to his bosses by claiming he had attended but left as the house was in darkness.

After a two-week inquest at Manchester Coroner’s Court, coroner Nigel Meadows ruled that Leo died of natural causes and although the call Katie Corry made to NHS Direct should have been classed as urgent rather than non-urgent, nothing could have been done to prevent baby Leo’s death.

Mrs Corry called NHS Direct at 12.28am on June 4, 2010, when Leo was suffering with a fever and she had no form of transport or money to get a taxi.

She was put through to the out-of-hours GP service, Go To Doc, which, shortly after 1am, promised a GP would visit Leo.

She told call handlers that Leo’s breathing was “rapid” and even held him to the phone to demonstrate but the inquest heard because she did not use the word severe it was classed as a non-urgent case.

A message detailing three cases was sent to Go To Doc’s on-call GP Dr Tahghighi, based at Bramhall Health Centre, at 1.09am but he only acknowledged it around 2am.

Mrs Corry and her partner fell asleep and Dr Tahghighi left two voicemails on her mobile at 2.35am and then at 3.10am, saying he was “very busy”, suggesting a visit could wait until the morning.

After falling asleep Leo’s parents woke at 4am and noticed a rash on his forehead — he was then taken to hospital in an ambulance where he later died.

Coroner Mr Meadows said the initial call should have been classed as urgent, meaning a visit within two hours instead of six, but ruled this still would not have saved Leo.

Mr Meadows found the doctor had been “evasive” but said his “failures did not make a causal contribution to his death”.

Dr Tahghighi has been suspended by the General Medical Council and has resigned from Go To Doc.