Alder Hey children's hospital admits 24 failures led to a toddler's death after routine surgery

The stories

12 stories on this beat today.

Every story told the same way: what happened, who is involved, why it matters, how it works, the truth and the good news.

1. 01

   Alder Hey children's hospital admits 24 failures led to a toddler's death after routine surgery

   24

   failures in Eleanor's care, found by an investigation

   they included an X-ray nobody flagged and a warning score added up wrong [1]

   21 months

   Eleanor's age when she died at Alder Hey

   she had routine skull surgery on 29 September 2023 [1]

   What happened

   • Alder Hey, a children's hospital in Liverpool, has admitted 24 failures led to a toddler's death. [1]
   • Eleanor Aldred-Owen was 21 months old when she died there on 2 October 2023. [1]
   • A coroner, who rules on how a person died, found that neglect played a part. [1]
   • The trust that runs Alder Hey said her death "should not have happened". [1]
   • During surgery her breathing tube came out by accident, and the anaesthetist put it back. [1]
   • Afterwards her heart raced and she needed extra oxygen. [1]
   • Staff started high-flow oxygen without writing it down or prescribing it by the trust's rules. [1]
   • The surgery had also caused one of her lungs to collapse. [1]
   • The radiographer, an X-ray specialist, told no one on the ward her X-ray was abnormal. [1]
   • The doctor did not review it at once: she was in A&E with another child. [1]
   • Eleanor's heart stopped before anyone treated the collapsed lung. [1]
   • She suffered a brain injury she could not survive, and died in her parents' arms. [1]
   • Staff also got her early warning score wrong on several occasions, an investigation found. [1]
   • Added up right, the score would have brought a doctor and an X-ray much earlier. [1]
   • The trust now has a clear way for X-ray staff to raise urgent findings straight away. [1]
   • Two checks after surgery at Alder Hey are now named after Eleanor. [1]

   Who is involved

   Her parents, Chaz and Rachel, are from Mold, in Flintshire. [1]

   • Chaz her father
   • Rachel her mother
   • Eleanor's parents want the changes kept up
   • Eleanor Aldred-Owen a 21-month-old from Mold, in Flintshire; she died after routine skull surgery
   • Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust the NHS body that runs Alder Hey, a children's hospital in Liverpool; it admitted 24 failures
   • Chaz and Rachel Eleanor's parents; they pushed the trust to admit gross neglect

   How it unfolded

   Eleanor had routine surgery on 29 September 2023 for craniosynostosis, a birth defect of the skull. [1]

   1. 29 Sep 2023 routine skull surgery
   2. 2 Oct 2023 Eleanor dies
   3. First lung collapses, X-ray not flagged
   4. Then her heart stops
   5. After brain injury she could not survive
   6. 29 Sep 2023 Eleanor has routine surgery for a skull birth defect [1]
   7. 2 Oct 2023 She dies after a missed collapsed lung [1]
   8. Later A coroner finds neglect played a part [1]
   9. Now The trust admits 24 failures and full responsibility [1]

   Why it matters

   Hospitals in England are moving to one national early warning score for children. [3]

   Eleanor's parents say the trust's changes must be used properly and kept under review. [1]

   How it works

   Such a score gives points for a child's routine checks, then adds them into one number. [2]

   A higher score is meant to bring a faster, more senior response. [2]

   Safety teams add layers: a warning score, a rapid response team, intensive-care staff on wards. [2]

   A response team depends on experienced staff being free to make urgent decisions. [2]

   The truth

   • What is really going on Alder Hey, a children's hospital in Liverpool, has now admitted that 24 failures in its care led to the death of 21-month-old Eleanor Aldred-Owen, after a long push by her parents. [1]
   • Her father says the trust first called it a breach of duty, not gross neglect. [1]
   • A 2022 review says studies of children's warning scores rarely test whether each part works. [2]
   • Who gains Children admitted to Alder Hey after surgery — X-ray staff now have a clear route to raise urgent findings at once, the step that failed for Eleanor. [1]
   • Who gains Staff who move between children's wards in England — One national early warning score replaces each hospital's own version, so the numbers mean the same everywhere. [3]
   • Who pays Eleanor's parents, Chaz and Rachel — They say they live with unbearable guilt and are irreversibly changed, though the trust, not they, failed her. [1]
   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether children's early warning scores, now going national in England, cut deaths on wards.

     A 2022 review found studies rarely test whether each part of the score works as intended. [2][3]

   Good news

   • A hospital team in Chongqing, China, found that an earlier, better-looking accuracy figure came from a data mistake, corrected it, and put the hospital's infection data online for anyone to check.
   • Alder Hey now has a clear way for X-ray staff to raise urgent findings straight away, and two checks after surgery there carry Eleanor Aldred-Owen's name.

1. 02

   Parents ask for an inquiry into a children's ward

   What happened

   • Families whose children died on a children's ward in Kettering, England, want a public inquiry. [4]
   • They began their campaign on Friday with a candlelit vigil in the town. [4]
   • A coroner found neglect contributed, and many chances to save her were missed. [4]

   Who is involved

   Louise Longster's daughter Chloe, 13, died of pneumonia and sepsis there in 2022. [4]

   • Chloe 13; died a day after admission

   How it unfolded

   Nicola Stanton's daughter Jorgie died on the same ward in 2016, just before turning two. [4]

   Her inquest found 5 medical failures, including missing that she was dehydrated. [4]

   Inspectors rated the ward inadequate in 2023 and requires improvement in 2024. [4]

   1. 2016 Jorgie dies on the ward
   2. 2022 Chloe dies on the ward
   3. 2023 rated inadequate
   4. 2024 requires improvement

   Why it matters

   The families say the hospital keeps promising that lessons will be learnt, and nothing changes. [4]

   How it works

   Medical law's duty of candour says a hospital must tell a family promptly after harm. [4]

   Why one mistake rarely kills a patient, but several in a row can

   Patient-safety science calls it the Swiss cheese model: every check misses some problems, and harm reaches a patient only when all the checks miss the same one.

   The twist

   Eleanor's death needed many checks to miss the same collapsed lung. That is why the investigation counted 24 failures, not one.

   The picture

   Warning scoreadded up wrong

   ↓→

   Chest X-raynot flagged

   ↓→

   Doctor's reviewdelayed

   Step by step

   1. 1 A hospital puts several checks between a sick child and harm
   2. 2 Each check misses some problems: a score added up wrong, an X-ray not passed on
   3. 3 Most days a later check catches what an earlier one missed
   4. 4 Harm gets through when every check misses the same problem at the same time
   5. 5 So safety work fixes the checks, not only the person who slipped

   The same force, elsewhere today

   Where this chain is also running, in today's other stories.

   • The Kettering children's ward

     Jorgie's inquest found five separate failures, from a steroid drip removed to dehydration nobody noticed, each a check that let the problem through.

   • The antibiotic passed on through sex

     The doctor's advice, the medicine leaflet and medical training all missed the same risk; the woman's own EpiPen was the check that held.

   • Balochistan's absent doctors

     A doctor on the rota who does not turn up is a check that exists on paper only, which is what the attendance system was brought in to find.

   Where you've seen this

   Flying

   a checklist, a co-pilot and air traffic control each catch some of what the others miss

   Food safety

   cooking, cold storage and inspections each stop some germs, and food poisoning needs all three to fail

   Railways

   signals, speed limits and automatic brakes stand between a driver's slip and a crash

   The catch

   A check only works if someone is free to act on it. On the day Eleanor's X-ray came back, the doctor who should have seen it was in A&E with another child.

   And the whole of it

   The radiographer, the doctor, the nurse adding up a score and the parents by the bed each saw one part of Eleanor's care. Nobody saw all 24 failures until an investigation counted them afterwards.

   The truth

   • What is really going on Families of children who died at Kettering General Hospital and at a Sussex hospital are still pushing for the same kind of answers, through a call for a public inquiry and a lawsuit. [4][5]
   • Why it works on people The words 'lessons will be learnt' sound as if the learning has already happened, and the Kettering families say it has not. [4]
   • The only penalty so far was a 1,250-pound fine for phoning Chloe's family late. [4]
   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether the UK government will order a public inquiry into Kettering's Skylark ward.

     The families launched their campaign on Friday, and the UK health department had not replied when the BBC asked. [4]

   What comes next

   The hospital's boss says he will listen; the UK health department had not yet replied. [4]

1. 03

   Parents sue after their baby's death in Sussex

   What happened

   • Olivia Trupiano's parents are suing the NHS trust where she died at five days old. [5]
   • She was born by emergency caesarean at 34 weeks, in September 2024. [5]
   • Olivia's brain got too little oxygen around her birth, and she died on 19 September. [5]
   • An inquest in October found nothing in her care likely to have caused her death. [5]
   • The coroner said her mother's condition had not shown itself in the usual way. [5]

   Who is involved

   That was at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, in England. [5]

   • Donna Ockenden senior midwife leading the review

   How it unfolded

   Before the birth, her mother Kimberley Newark was told her severe pain was trapped wind. [5]

   In fact she was bleeding inside: an artery to her spleen had burst. [5]

   1. Birth too little oxygen to her brain
   2. 19 September Olivia dies

   Why it matters

   The same trust's maternity care is under an independent review led by midwife Donna Ockenden. [5]

   The truth

   • Whether earlier treatment of the bleeding would have saved Olivia is still not settled. [5]
   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether earlier treatment of Kimberley Newark's internal bleeding would have saved her daughter Olivia.

     The inquest found no failing in the baby's care likely to have caused her death, and the family's lawyers are still looking for missed chances. [5]

2. 04

   North Wales may close three urgent care centres

   What happened

   • A health board in north Wales is consulting on closing 3 urgent care centres. [6]
   • Nurses, family doctors and physiotherapists there treat urgent problems on the same day. [6]
   • The board blames money pressures and trouble hiring staff. [6]

   Who is involved

   The board, Betsi Cadwaladr, runs the NHS's hospitals and services in the area. [6]

   The centres are at hospitals in Holyhead, Tremadog and Bangor. [6]

   How it unfolded

   They opened in 2022 to ease pressure on family doctors and A&E. [6]

   The board spent 9 years under special measures over care quality and patient safety. [6]

   Why it matters

   Objectors say patients would crowd into GP surgeries and A&E instead. [6]

   How it works

   In health planning, these centres exist to take urgent cases away from GPs and A&E. [6]

   The truth

   • Holyhead's hospital already lost its 4-bed hospice unit in 2025. [6]
   • Who pays Patients near Holyhead, Tremadog and Bangor in north Wales — If the three urgent care centres close by March 2027, objectors say patients will crowd GP surgeries and A&E instead. [6]

   Good news

   • In the US, more mothers began pregnancy check-ups in the first three months in 2025: 76.3%, up from 75.5% the year before.

   What comes next

   If the plan is approved, the centres would shut by 31 March 2027. [6]

3. 05

   Pakistan's Balochistan sacks 72 absent doctors

   What happened

   • The health department of Balochistan, a province of Pakistan, sacked 72 government doctors on Saturday. [7]
   • They were dismissed for long absences from work, under an AI-based attendance system. [7]
   • In all, 200 health department staff have now been dismissed, and 800 more face action. [7]
   • Notices have gone to 11,000 employees asking them to explain their absences. [7]
   • Officials say 410 million rupees has been cut from staff pay over absence. [7]

   Who is involved

   The health minister, Bakht Muhammad Kakar, says the doctors ignored repeated notices to return. [7]

   • Bakht Muhammad Kakar Balochistan's health minister

   How it unfolded

   The province brought in the system to make medical staff turn up regularly. [7]

   Why it matters

   He says the aim is good health care at people's doorsteps. [7]

   How it works

   A doctor on the rota who does not turn up is a check that exists on paper only, which is what the attendance system was brought in to find.

   The idea, in story 02: Why one mistake rarely kills a patient, but several in a row can →

   The truth

   • The report does not say how accurate the AI system is, or how doctors can appeal. [7]
   • Who gains Balochistan's provincial government — Sacking 72 doctors and cutting 410 million rupees of pay lets it show action on doctors who do not turn up. [7]
   • Who pays The 72 dismissed doctors in Balochistan — They lost government jobs at once under a system whose checks have not been published. [7]
   • Nobody knows yet

     How Balochistan's AI attendance system decides a doctor was absent, and how a sacked doctor can appeal.

     The official notice gives the dismissals and pay cuts but says nothing about how the system checks or how decisions are reviewed. [7]

4. 06

   An antibiotic in semen caused a near-fatal allergy

   What happened

   • A woman nearly died of an allergic reaction to an antibiotic in her partner's semen. [8]
   • The doctor told him she would not be at risk. [8]
   • 5 minutes after sex, she went into anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction. [8]
   • She used her EpiPen, an adrenaline injector, and left hospital six hours later. [8]
   • About 1 in 100 people are allergic to penicillins, but anaphylaxis from them is extremely rare. [8]

   How it unfolded

   He had taken amoxicillin, a common penicillin antibiotic, 6 hours earlier for a sinus infection. [8]

   She was known to react to penicillins, so he asked his doctor first. [8]

   1. 6 hours before he takes amoxicillin
   2. 5 minutes after sex her reaction starts

   Why it matters

   The doctors who studied her case want it on amoxicillin's leaflet and taught in medical training. [8]

   How it works

   Antibiotics reach the glands that make most of the fluid in semen through the blood. [8]

   The doctor's advice, the medicine leaflet and medical training all missed the same risk; the woman's own EpiPen was the check that held.

   The idea, in story 02: Why one mistake rarely kills a patient, but several in a row can →

   The truth

   • Staff who treated her seemed not to know this could happen, she says. [8]
   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether amoxicillin's leaflet will warn about passing the drug on through sex.

     The doctors who studied the case have sent it to the MHRA, the UK medicines regulator, which had not commented. [8]

   Good news

   • The woman who reacted to amoxicillin in her partner's semen survived: she used her EpiPen, paramedics gave more adrenaline, and she left hospital six hours later.

   What comes next

   The UK medicines regulator, the MHRA, will decide whether the leaflet should change. [8]

5. 07

   Drug-proof germs in a Chinese hospital

   What happened

   • A hospital in Chongqing, China, tracked the infections patients caught inside it for 39 months. [9]
   • Across 256,993 admissions, 1,054 patients caught 1,240 infections in the hospital. [9]
   • That is 0.48 infections per 100 admissions, with no rise in any season. [9]
   • The commonest germ, in 19.4% of samples, was a bacterium called Acinetobacter baumannii. [9]
   • Carbapenem antibiotics failed against 92% of those germs, and 98.5% in intensive care. [9]
   • Breathing machines, being bedbound, tubes into big veins and stroke were common among resistant cases. [9]

   Who is involved

   It is a 1,100-bed district hospital, outside the big university hospital networks. [9]

   Why it matters

   Drug-resistant germs cause a growing share of deaths from infections caught in hospital. [9]

   How it works

   Data scientists call it leakage: the test held repeat patients and facts known only later. [9]

   The truth

   • The team found an earlier accuracy figure of 0.91 came from that mistake. [9]
   • The corrected score for predicting drug-resistant infection is 0.74 to 0.75. [9]
   • Who gains Researchers studying drug-resistant germs — The Chongqing team published its hospital's data openly and corrected an inflated accuracy figure, so others can test their own methods on it. [9]
   • Who pays Intensive-care patients at the Chongqing hospital — Carbapenem antibiotics failed against 98.5% of the commonest germ there, leaving doctors fewer drugs that work. [9]

   Good news

   • The team has shared the hospital's data openly, so others can check it. [9]
6. 08

   US birth rate falls to a record low

   What happened

   • The US fertility rate fell 1% in 2025, to its lowest level on record. [10]
   • That rate counts births for every 1,000 women aged 15 to 44: 53.2 in 2025. [10]
   • Births fell from 3,628,934 in 2024 to 3,612,012 in 2025. [10]
   • Rates fell to record lows for every age group from 10 to 29. [10]
   • For women aged 20 to 24, the rate fell from 55.8 to 52.3. [10]
   • For women aged 30 to 34, it rose from 93.7 to 96.3. [10]

   Who is involved

   The figures come from the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the CDC. [10]

   Why it matters

   An Atlanta Federal Reserve study found Gen Z women much less likely to want children. [11]

   The US median age reached 39.4 in 2025, and some states are losing people. [11]

   How it works

   Demographers watch the rate, not just the count, because the number of women changes too. [10]

   The truth

   • One mother told NPR the cost of raising a child convinced her one was enough. [11]
   • Nobody knows yet

     Why fewer women in their twenties in the US are having babies.

     A Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta study points to costs, careers and changing priorities, but the birth figures alone cannot separate choice from money. [11][10]

   Good news

   • More mothers began pregnancy check-ups in the first three months: 76.3%, up from 75.5%. [10]
7. 09

   Home life predicted teen depression better than genes

   What happened

   • Home life predicted depression in young US teenagers better than their genes did, a study found. [12]
   • Researchers used each child's life at 9 to 11 to predict symptoms at 11 to 13. [12]
   • 12 factors together explained 12.3% of the differences in symptoms. [12]
   • The strongest were a parent's depression, seeing violence at home, sleep and dieting. [12]
   • The home score reached 0.69 on an accuracy scale; the gene score reached 0.64. [12]
   • Using both together did best, at 0.71. [12]

   Who is involved

   It used 9,797 children from the ABCD study, which follows US children as they grow. [12]

   How it unfolded

   1. Age 9 to 11 facts about home and life recorded
   2. Age 11 to 13 depression symptoms measured

   Why it matters

   Sleep and dieting can change, so the authors call them possible targets for prevention. [12]

   How it works

   Geneticists add up many small gene differences into one number, a polygenic risk score. [12]

   The truth

   • The authors say the score must still be tested on other groups of children. [12]
8. 10

   Two days of group therapy eased depression, briefly

   What happened

   • Two days of group therapy eased depression symptoms a week later, a small Romanian trial found. [13]
   • Of 61 adults, 31 were picked at random for therapy and 30 to wait. [13]
   • It adds why closeness mattered to our ancestors, to ease self-blame. [13]
   • Groups of five to seven met in Bucharest for two 8-hour days. [13]
   • That is 16 hours, about as much as a normal course of one-to-one CBT. [13]
   • After a week, the therapy group scored 7.5 points better on a 0 to 42 scale. [13]
   • After three months the gap shrank to 3.1 points, small enough to be chance. [13]

   Who is involved

   The therapy builds on CBT, which works on how thoughts, feelings and actions link up. [13]

   Why it matters

   If the result holds up, the short length could matter in clinics, the lead researcher says. [13]

   How it works

   A waiting-list comparison cannot show it beats existing therapies, the researchers note. [13]

   The truth

   • One therapist ran every session and knew who got therapy; the method's author co-wrote the study. [13]
   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether two days of group therapy helps depression for longer than a week.

     The gain shrank to 3.1 points at three months, and the trial had 61 people, one therapist and no comparison with other therapies. [13]

   What comes next

   The researchers call for a bigger trial against standard group CBT. [13]

9. 11

   Why lungs grow differently in Down syndrome

   What happened

   • An immune signal may reshape growing lungs in Down syndrome, lab work suggests. [14]
   • Lung problems are a main cause of illness and death in children with Down syndrome. [14]
   • Researchers added interferon to developing human lung tissue in the lab. [14]
   • It reproduced most of the gene activity changes seen in trisomy 21 lungs. [14]
   • The team says the signal is needed for these lung changes, and enough to cause them. [14]

   Who is involved

   Down syndrome comes from trisomy 21: three copies of chromosome 21 instead of two. [14]

   How it unfolded

   Type I interferon, an immune signal, is overactive in many of their tissues. [14]

   Why it matters

   That gives researchers a way to test possible treatments in the lab. [14]

   How it works

   In a growing lung, the supporting tissue signals the lining how to form; interferon disrupts that. [14]

   The truth

   • The work used lab tissue, not children, so it shows a cause in the lab only. [14]
   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether the interferon finding in trisomy 21 lung tissue holds in children's bodies.

     The experiments used developing lung tissue in a lab, not children. [14]

10. 12

    England looks to Denmark to fix children's homes

    What happened

    • England's children's minister, Josh MacAlister, visited Denmark this week to study its children's homes. [15]
    • Last year 669 children in England lived in illegal, unregistered children's homes. [15]
    • Councils paid more than 125 million pounds to keep them there. [15]
    • Spending on children's homes rose 96% in five years, to over 3.1 billion pounds in 2023-24. [15]
    • English homes make teenagers leave at 18; the Danish home lets them stay to 23. [15]
    • In the UK, about 53% of children's home staff have worked there three years or less. [15]

    Who is involved

    The review is led by Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang, whose trust runs a children's home in Sutton. [15]

    • Josh MacAlister England's children's minister
    • Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang leads the review

    How it unfolded

    The visit is part of a Department for Education review of England's children's homes. [15]

    Why it matters

    Many children in English homes report being cut off from family and friends. [15]

    How it works

    Staff at one top Danish home are trained in social pedagogy: psychology, child development and ethics. [15]

    The truth

    • In England, 83% of children's home places are run privately, some at profits above 20%. [15]
    • The UK government can cap those profits by law but has not yet used the power. [15]

    What comes next

    MacAlister says he is "really persuaded" by ending the fixed leaving age of 18. [15]

    Wales will ban profit-making firms from children's social care by 2030. [15]