A premature newborn baby, fed with a contaminated Total Parental Nutrition (TPN) fluid, died at just nine days old. Yousef Al-Kharboush suffered sepsis or blood poisoning due to the tainted feeding supply.
Yousef was one of 19 newborn babies poisoned by the TPN across nine hospitals in the U.K. between May 27 to June 2 in 2014. According to the Daily Mirror, the baby was also one of three youngest babies who became severely ill from the feed that ITH Pharma supplied.
The pharmaceutical company has been locked in a legal battle for years due to the babies' deaths. ITH Pharma has pleaded guilty to its failure to conduct a proper risk assessment test before distributing supplies of Total Parental Nutrition. Judge Deborah Taylor fined ITH Pharma more than $1.5 million for their product's "significant shortfall from the required standard."
ITH Pharma has been fined over £1.2m after supplying contaminated feed for premature babies, three of whom later died.
— London Live (@LondonLive) April 29, 2022
Some 19 infants were infected with Bacillus Cereus bacteraemia at nine hospitals after receiving a contaminated batch of their total parenteral nutrition (TPN). pic.twitter.com/cErGJK4dMz
The Other Newborns who Died from the Tainted TPN
Yousef was born via emergency C-section at 32 weeks gestation with his twin, Abdulilah, at St. Thomas' Hospital in May 2014. Both babies were unable to feed adequately due to their condition and thus were given Total Parental Nutrition fluids while in the neonatal intensive care unit. Abdulilah, however, was not affected by the tainted TPN.
Around the same period at the Rosie Maternity Hospital, newborn twins Tameria and Tia Aldrich were also given TPN. Tameria died a few days after Yousef. Another infant born at the same hospital, Oscar Barker, also didn't survive.
Raaid Sakkijha, Yousef's father, said that his family is still haunted by what happened to their son. His wife, Sakkijha, still bears the weight of losing Yousef, especially when she sees his twin brother. The family has accused the pharmaceutical company of prioritizing profit over the safety of the babies, per The Guardian.
During the sentencing of ITH Pharma, Vicki Golden, the mother of Tameria, and Holly Baker, Oscar's mother, cried in the gallery. Golden said she has always believed that the TPN contributed to her baby's health deterioration. The parents' lawyer, Arti Shah, said that the families have been living in hell for the last eight years. However, the judge ruled that, while the company was liable for putting the babies at risk, the prosecutor failed to prove that it placed profit before safety.
ITH Pharma Issues Public Apology
Karen Hamling, the managing director of ITH Pharma, was in the gallery during the sentencing. She said she had "desperate anxiety" for the babies who died and felt "anger and sadness" at the same time as her firm was persecuted in public. Hamling said that she was "genuinely sorry" that the feed supplies made by the company brought risks.
A spokesperson for ITH Pharma also issued the company's official statement after the judge's decision. The spokesperson extended its "deepest sympathies to the families" affected by the events that took place eight years ago, per the Evening Standard.
