Parents of six-week-old baby say they are 'furious' with Bolton hospital after being prescribed 'potentially fatal' dose

The parents of a six-week-old baby say they are furious with staff at a Bolton hospital after being prescribed a ‘potentially fatal’ dose of drugs to help treat their newborn - 15 times over the recommended amount.

On March 6, full-time carer Heather Jennings, 37, from Farnworth, gave birth to baby boy Jadon at Royal Bolton Hospital - her first with husband Gareth, 36. Her partner said the birth was marred by problems from the get-go, with misjudged labour and a ruptured placenta.

A month after his difficult birth, baby Jadon fell ill with a high temperature and was rushed to hospital. It was initially thought that Jadon had contracted a bug due to cross-contamination, before doctors suggested he might need to receive an IV drip for suspected meningitis. It was later decided to treat Jadon for the initial infection instead.

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Last Thursday (April 14), the hospital prescribed Jadon with Clindamycin - medicine used to combat infection - with the instructions of three 5ml spoonfuls, four times a day. As prescribed, Jadon would have received 60ml of the medication a day.

It was only after a community nurse visited the family the day before the round of medication was due to begin that they were warned that the prescribed dosage was 15 times over the recommended amount. “The community nurse had left some stuff in the kitchen so had come back to pick it up,” Gareth, who also works as a carer, tells the M.E.N.

“While they were here, my wife mentioned that the prescription seemed a bit high and asked them to check it. The nurse turned to my wife and went ‘You’ve not given him this yet, have you?’. He was absolutely shocked. He explained that if