Technical failures at Great Ormond Street hospital may have contributed to Sophie Ryan-Palmer's death. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA Archive
A 12-year-old cancer patient may have died because of problems in a stem cell freezing process used by Great Ormond Street hospital.
Technical failures at the childrens NHS trust could have contributed to the death of Sophie Ryan-Palmer, from Sunbury in Surrey, St Pancras coroners court has been told.
In a narrative verdict, the coroner, Mary Hassell, said it was unclear what effect the treatment had but she ruled that the deaths of three other children at the hospital were not connected to difficulties with the medical procedure.
The other three children were 13-month-old Ryan Loughran, from Bournemouth, who died in July, four-year-old Katie Joyce, from Hertfordshire, who died in October, and five-year-old Muhanna al-Hayany, who had come from Kuwait to receive the treatment and died in August this year.
Responding to the findings, a spokesperson for Great Ormond Street said: This has been an immensely distressing process for all of the families involved. These four young patients were extremely poorly children with complex conditions, and it is frustrating for everyone concerned, especially their families, for it still to be unclear exactly what caused the freezing problem and to what extent this might have contributed to one patients eventual outcome.
As soon as we identified a potential problem with our stem cell freezing process in 2013, we stopped freezing cells on site and used alternative facilities in other London hospitals while an investigation was undertaken.
We had tested all of these cells prior to transplant, following UK national standards of testing, and the results of these tests had indicated the cells were alive and viable. Therefore at this stage there was no indication of any problem, and it was only after a period of time had elapsed that the pattern of delayed engraftment began to emerge among a group of patients.
The hospital has reintroduced freezing of cells using an alternative method, which is in use in other hospitals across the country. Great Ormond Streets previous freezing method is in use at other hospitals.
The trusts statement added: We welcome the coroners recommendation to create a more standardised approach to the way the medical community shares knowledge nationally about autologous stem cell transplants in children with cancer, to raise awareness of any issues uncovered and ensure a similar problem does not occur again. Autologous transplants are those where the donor is also the recipient.
View post:
Great Ormond Street stem cell freezing problem may have led to girls death