Investigation and inquest
On 21 April 2017, one of my assistant coroners, Edwin Buckett, commenced an investigation into the death of Freddie Dobinson-Evans, aged one year. The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 1 March 2018.
I made a determination at inquest of death by natural causes.
I recorded a medical cause of death of:
1a post cardiac arrest syndrome
1b Dravet syndrome
Circumstances of the death
Freddie’s Dravet syndrome was not diagnosed in life. At the time of his death he was being investigated, and a diagnosis of complex febrile convulsions had been made by his treating clinicians.
Coroner’s concerns
Following a testing request made for Freddie on 20 February 2017, a report was issued from the laboratory at Great Ormond Street Hospital on 7 June 2017. It was headlined:
No clearly pathogenic variant detected. Diagnosis not confirmed.
████████ spoke to Freddie’s father the following day and told him that Freddie’s genetic test results were “absolutely normal”.
In fact, Freddie did have a pathogenic gene mutation in the SCN1A gene and died as a result of Dravet Syndrome.
By the time the report was issued, Freddie had already sadly died and so of course the misdiagnosis had no consequences for him, but such a situation could have significant consequences for another child.