11/09/01 - Doctor admits fatal mistake
By Essex Evening Echo
Stabbing victim Danny Davis would probably have lived if a doctor had noticed his internal bleeding on a hospital scan, a murder trial jury was told. Dr Nigel Tai, a surgical specialist registrar with Basildon Hospital, told the court he failed to notice a blood clot on a scan of the 24-year-old's abdomen when he was brought into accident and emergency after being stabbed in February last year.
The Home Office pathologist who carried out the post mortem examination on Mr Davis also described his hospital treatment as "a catalogue of errors". Mr Davis, a heroin user and a father of one, died in hospital early the next morning from blood loss after being stabbed in the buttock the night before.
The admission came on the fifth day of the trial of Jamal Timberland James who denies murdering Mr Davis in Vange in February 19 last year. The prosecution at Chelmsford Crown Court alleges James, 26, formerly of Basildon, stabbed Mr Davis when a drug deal exploded into violence.
The defence claims James acted in self-defence when Mr Davis brandished a knife and that the victim only died because of alleged negligence in his treatment at Basildon Hospital. The jury was told scans of Mr Davis's internal injuries were never studied by a consultant radiologist because a fax machine normally used to send them to the off duty consultant was not working.
Dr Tai said he had to describe them over the telephone instead. The jury also heard that instructions to nursing staff from Dr Tai to regularly monitor Mr Davis's blood pressure and pulse were not carried out and that a drip providing him with fluids was not replaced when it ran out, leaving him dehydrated because of blood loss.
The Home Office pathologist said that claims by the defendant the stabbing happened accidentally as he struggled with Mr Davis did not concur with the medical evidence. The trial continues.
