Devastated family hear how chances were missed to save baby Archie

INQUEST CONFIRMS SCAN COULD HAVE FOUND HEART ISSUE BEFORE IT PROVED FATAL

- By HEDI MEHREZ

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".

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.