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Triplet death court case collapses

From the Wirral Globe, first published Monday 30th Apr 2001.

A DOCTOR accused of unlawfully killing a two-day-old baby triplet by negligently administering an anti-epileptic drug walked free from court last Friday after the case against him collapsed.

Events took their dramatic turn at Liverpool Crown Court following a break in the cross-examination of the prosecution's first witness.

When the court re-assembled after lunch David Steer, QC, prosecuting, told the jury that unforeseen difficulties had convinced him that it was no longer appropriate to seek a conviction for manslaughter and he therefore offered no further evidence.

The jury was directed by Judge David Clarke, QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, to return a not guilty verdict against Dr Kosalakumar Karunaratne, aged 36, of Shotton, North Wales. He had denied the manslaughter of Adam Teare on February 25 last year.

Adam, one of three triplets, was born 11 weeks early to Birkenhead couple, accountant Nicola Teare and solicitor Keith Teare. He was in an incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit at Liverpool Women's Hospital when, it was claimed, Dr Karunaratne administered the anti-epileptic drug Phenytoin to Adam when he should have been using sterile water to flush the drip feed on his arm.

Outside court Dr Karunaratne's solicitor Julian Linskill read from a prepared statement with the doctor at his side. He said that the doctor may face the possibility of an internal inquiry and that the hospital faced the possibility of a civil action not involving the doctor. He thought it unlikely that the doctor would return to the hospital but no decision had been made as yet.

Dr Karunaratne, a Sri Lankan-born senior house officer, was in his third week of a six-month post at the hospital at the time of the death. After qualifying as a doctor in Sri Lanka in 1991, he worked at three hospitals there until 1998 before working as a senior house officer for a year at Farnborough Hospital in Kent, followed by a year in a similar post at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

The case collapsed on its fourth day.