Luke Jenkins death: Family receive £100,000 settlement

The parents of a seven-year-old boy who died following heart surgery at Bristol Children’s Hospital have been awarded £100,000 in compensation.

Luke Jenkins, from Cardiff, suffered a cardiac arrest days after an operation in March 2012.

An NHS Ombudsman identified “missed opportunities in his care” and the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust admitted “failings”.

The trust said it was “deeply sorry” for letting Luke’s family down.

In a statement, its chief executive Robert Woolley said: “The care Luke received has been subject to several, independent, expert reviews – none of which showed that we caused his death.

“We fully accept, however, that there were failings in the care and treatment we gave him and we also accept that we compounded the pain and grief of his family by giving incorrect and incomplete information in response to their complaint.

“We are deeply sorry for everything we got wrong.”

Following the operation to correct a congenital heart defect, Luke was discharged from intensive care to ward 32.

He developed a bleed on his chest and was operated on further, but was returned to the ward, rather than intensive care.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman found Luke’s parents, Faye Valentine and Stephen Jenkins, had been misled by staff about ward 32 being a high dependency unit.

At the time, the hospital had no designated paediatric high dependency beds.

The report also found medics failed to recognise Luke was deteriorating and he should have been admitted back into intensive care.

However, the ombudsman could not link Luke’s death to any of the failings.

Mr Jenkins has been unable to work since the death of his son.

Ms Valentine, said, “maybe now” the family can forget the legal battle and “just remember Luke”.

“This has been going on for five years, a battle for the truth that’s all we’ve ever asked from them, all we’ve ever wanted,” she said.

In 2013, the Avon coroner recorded a narrative verdict saying there was “no evidence of gross failure” in the care Luke received.