Relatives of the children, who were among 19 infected with Bacillus Cereus in nine hospitals in England, said the fine would be a drop in the ocean for ITH Pharma, which they accused of continuing normally. Yousef Al-Kharboush was nine days old when he died at St Thomas’ Hospital in central London on June 1, 2014, having developed sepsis. He and his twin brother, Abdulilah, were born by emergency caesarean section in St Thomas’ in the 32nd week of pregnancy in May 2014. While in the intensive care unit, they were both fed intravenously. While Abdulilah was unaffected, Yousef died. Tameria Aldrich, whose twin sister Tia also survived, died nine days after Yousef after being transported to St Thomas’ from Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, while Oscar Barker died at Rosie Maternity Hospital in Cambridge. The 19 infected children all received total parenteral nutrition (TPN) from ITH Pharma between 27 May and 2 June 2014 as diet directly into their bloodstream because they could not feed on their own. Prosecutors said ITH Pharma’s failure to conduct a proper risk assessment resulted in Youssef’s death, although TPN did not allegedly cause the deaths of the other two babies. On Friday, Judge Deborah Taylor in Southwark court ordered the company, which had an annual turnover of 66 66.8 million by September 2020, to pay a 1, 1.215 million fine and 29 291,000 in costs, having previously pleaded guilty to three counts. offenses. But he said: “I did not find the cause of Yusuf’s death to be proven at the criminal level.” He added that, for legal purposes, the bacteremia did not necessarily cause actual harm, but that the company’s procedures were in danger of “serious harm or death”. Raeid Sakkijha, Yousef’s father, said: “Terrible memories still haunt us and will haunt us forever.” He added that Yousef’s mother, Ghada Sakkijha, “feels the weight of losing her son” every time she looks at their surviving child. “This company that did this to us will not even feel the fine. It’s business as usual for them. Is this justice? “ Arti Shah, a medical malpractice lawyer at Fieldfisher, the company representing the Yousef, Tameria and Oscar families in civil proceedings, said: “For eight years, ITH Pharma has been operating normally. For eight years, Youssef’s parents live in hell. “The company has not yet admitted that it caused Youssef’s death.” Tameria’s mother, Vicki Golden, and Oscar’s mother, Holly Barker, wept as the sentence was handed down. A spokesman for ITH Pharma said: “At ITH Pharma, first and foremost, we offer our deepest condolences to the families of the patients affected by the events of eight years ago. “We accept the fine imposed by the court, having pleaded guilty to an individual regulatory offense of inadequate and inadequate risk assessment, in accordance with the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations of 1999, and for two regulatory offenses under the 1968 Pharmaceutical Act. delivery of a medicinal product on 27 May 2014, not of the nature or quality specified in the prescription. “ITH Pharma has been a leading manufacturer of whole parenteral nutrition (TPN) and other pharmaceutical products for many years and the events of May 27, 2014 were utterly exceptional.”
