The avoidable death of nine-year-old Dylan Cope from Wales, contributed to by neglect of the hospital, and his parents continuing battle for answers.
9 year old Dylan Cope died just days after being discharged from The Grange University Hospital. Hospital staff misdiagnosed Dylan’s appendicitis and discharged him “erroneously”, failing to provide his father with appropriate discharge information or safety netting. The Coroner said what happened "amounts to a gross failure of basic care” and found Dylan’s death “was contributed to by neglect” of Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. Other failures were identified, including with NHS Wales 111 service who missed red flag symptoms. Dylan’s heartbroken parents are still searching for answers as key staff, including a male believed to be a ‘Senior Doctor’ remain ‘unidentified’.
Dylan’s parents have spoken out about their battle for answers and the internal investigation poor in vital areas that led to unidentified key staff, including a ‘Dr’ that reassured Dylan’s father Dylan did not have a life threatening illness but a self-resolving one.Dylan’s parents remain concerned by the “fundamentally flawed system” of NHS organisations being expected to investigate their own failures and say these sort of investigations should be undertaken by a completely independent body to mitigate bias (both conscious and unconscious) and for timely, expert investigations and thorough learning throughout the NHS.