'Opportunities to save Archie's life missed' - coroner

THE family of a one-year-old boy who died after doctors missed opportunities to identify a rare heart condition say they now have to live with a "devastating reality".

- By HEDI MEHREZ

Archie Squire died at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate on November 23, 2023, just days after his first birthday.

Recording a narrative conclusion at the conclusion of the inquest into his death, Kent North East Area coroner Sarah Clarke said Archie died from heart failure and congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (ccTGA), a rare heart defect in which the heart's ventricles and great arteries are reversed.

Records show that Archie was seen by frontline medical staff no fewer than 16 times across his life, including nine trips to the QEQM accident and emergency department. However, he was never given an echocardiogram, an ultrasound scan which can diagnose ccTGA.

The coroner concluded that earlier recognition and diagnosis of Archie's heart condition would almost certainly have meant he would not have died when he did.

Following the inquest, Archie's parents Jake Squire and Lauren Parish read a statement on behalf of the family. They said: "It has been incredibly difficult to sit and listen to the evidence over the last couple of weeks. Archie was a happy baby, but he was not a well baby and me and Lauren did all that we could during his short life to seek help for him.