Paediatrician David Southall cleared of conducting baby experiments without parental permission

13 April 2012

Dr David Southall, who wasn't at today's hearing, was cleared of carrying out breathing experiments on babies without their parents' consent


A controversial paediatrician was cleared yesterday of experimenting on babies without their parents' consent.

David Southall, 59, and two other doctors were cleared of serious professional misconduct over research involving premature babies placed in low-pressure incubators to help them breathe unaided.

Dr Southall was struck off last December in a separate case when he accused a mother of murdering her ten-year-old son. He is appealing against the ruling.

He was also suspended in 2004 for accusing the husband of solicitor Sally Clark - the woman who was wrongly jailed over the death of her sons - of killing the two boys.

Dr Southall was not in court to hear the General Medical Council's fitness to practise panel exonerate him, Dr Martin Samuels and Dr Andrew Spencer in relation to the tests at North Staffordshire Hospital in the early 1990s. He is understood to be working in Gambia.

Carl and Deborah Henshall, who alleged they did not give properly informed consent for their daughters to take part in the trial, called the panel's decision 'flawed and one-sided' and vowed to press for a judicial review and public inquiry.

The hearing was the culmination of more than 12 years of campaigning by Mr and Mrs Henshall.

Their baby daughters, Stacey and Sofie, were placed in the incubators at the hospital following their births in February and December 1992. Stacey died after two days, while Sofie survived but was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

The couple, of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, alleged they did not give properly informed consent to medics for their girls to be placed in the tanks.

But lawyers for Dr Southall, Dr Andrew Spencer and Dr Martin Samuels successfully argued that the case, which has been ongoing for the past two months, be dismissed before the doctors were due to give evidence.

Mr and Mrs Henshall today criticised the panel's decision as 'flawed, one-sided and having no place in the modern world'.

'None of the clinicians involved took responsibility for their conduct on the study or indeed clinical responsibility for the care of the children used,' they said.

'The doctors blamed the nurses, the ethics committee and even the common practices of the time.

'The GMC's fitness to practise procedure has not and cannot by way of its present procedures provide a mechanism for ensuring patient safety or enabling a fair and thorough investigation and consideration of patients' concerns about serious professional misconduct.

'This process is seriously flawed and one-sided and has no place in the modern world.'

They pledged to press ahead for a judicial review and repeated calls for a public inquiry into the case.

Dr Southall was not in court to hear the panel's decision and is understood to be working in The Gambia.

He is currently appealing against an earlier GMC decision to strike him off the medical register after being found guilty of serious professional misconduct, amounting from a separate case, in December last year.

In that case the panel ruled he abused his position of trust by accusing a grieving mother of murdering her 10-year-old son.

In 2004 Dr Southall was also suspended from child protection work over his role in the case of solicitor Sally Clark, wrongly jailed over the death of her two sons.

He accused Mrs Clark's husband, Steve, of murdering the two boys, on the basis of a television interview.

Giving evidence, Mr Henshall, 40, admitted he signed a consent form permitting Stacey to take part in the trial overseen by Dr Southall but said he did not read the literature. He claimed he was not given any information about the treatment or made aware it was a trial.

Mrs Henshall, 44, said she gave verbal consent for Sofie to undergo the experiment but could not remember giving written approval.

Another 11 parents gave evidence at the hearing and all agreed they had given permission for their children to take part in the trial.

Panel chairman David Kyle said it could not be proved that consent was not taken properly or that there was a systemic failure in the management of the process.

All charges against Drs Southall, Spencer and Samuels were unfounded, including one of allegedly misrepresenting within a parental leaflet that the technique had been shown to be safe.

Both Dr Southall and Dr Spencer were also cleared of inaccurately describing the procedures of their trial in their applications for ethical approval.

There was no evidence to prove an allegation that Dr Spencer failed to ensure appropriate steps were taken to treat hypoxia (shortage of oxygen) suffered by Sofie Henshall, the panel added.

They concluded that none of the three paediatricians' actions were inappropriate, inadequate, not in the patients' best interest or likely to bring the medical professional into disrepute.

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