Verdict on Baby Jack expected this morning

Friday 18 January 2019

The Judge who has been overseeing the inquest into the death of baby Jack Tually is expected to deliver a verdict this morning.

The judgement will decide what led to baby Jack's death, five years after it happened.

It is expected that Judge Philip Robey will either decide the death was because of hypoxia, caused by PPHN - breathing troubles in new borns - or that it was because of clinical mistakes and negligence which led to those sicknesses. 

But he won't go into too much detail, he told advocates involved in the inquest yesterday, after they presented their closing statements. Earlier in the week, expert witnesses had spent two days giving their evidence.

Pictured: The inquest is being heard at Guernsey's courts. 

Jack himself died 14 hours after he was born in January 2014, but it has taken five years since then to get to this point in the Inquest, which opened in October 2017.

His family have been seeking answers ever since his birth, and subsequent death. But no one has benefited from how long proceedings have taken.

Deputy Heidi Soulsby, President of Health & Social Care, issued a statement when the inquest reconvened at the start of this week to reassure people that major improvements have been made to their maternity services. 

Midwives were struck off and a full scale investigation took off when Jack's death came into the public eye some years ago now, and it is now a top priority to ensure the care for mothers at the PEH is of a high standard. 

The decision is expected in a hearing due to start at 11:30 this morning. More to come on Express.

Pictured top: Baby Jack was born on the Loveridge Ward at the PEH.