‘The house is just so quiet without her’

9:25pm Friday 23rd November 2007

THERE has been a deafening silence in Clare and Richard Bowen's family home ever since their "princess" Beth died on the operating table during routine surgery.

Five-year-old Beth died during an operation to remove her spleen in July 2006.

Her parents, of Home Ground, Cricklade, said they are still struggling to deal with their grief, guilt and anger 18 months on.

"I feel like I have let her down," said 31-year-old computer chip designer Richard. "Your only role as a parent is to protect them and I didn't. I couldn't.

"That's why we feel so strongly that parents should be told exactly what is going to happen during their children's treatment. Then they can make an informed choice.

"The whole time we just wanted answers. You can't bring my daughter back, but you can at least do your best to reassure me you have done your best to stop this happening again."

After three days hearing the agonising details of the last moments of Beth's life relived during an inquest at Oxford Coroner's Court, Clare and Richard said they still longed to know the truth about what went wrong during the operation and vowed to fight on in the hope they can save other families from similar heartache.

The hearing failed to give a conclusive answer as to how Beth died. Her parents now plan to pursue a clinical negligence claim against the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital's NHS Trust.

Devastated Clare said she longed for all the experiences she will miss out on with her little girl.

"The Christmas before she died she had been given some money and we went out shopping together. She bought some lipstick and a handbag and it was amazing just doing that together," she said.

"She was my beautiful, curly haired little girl. There is now a massive hole in our lives.

"She loved school. She was always singing songs and was so chatty. She never, ever stopped talking.

"That was the first thing we noticed, when we came home. How quiet it was without her."

Yesterday, while she should have been celebrating her 32nd birthday, Clare sat in court listening to how her daughter died.

"I didn't feel much like opening presents," she said.

Beth's death has sent shockwaves through the family. The lively five-year-old was best friends with her brothers William, now four, and two-year-old James, who will never remember his big sister.

"William said to me I don't want to grow up, because then I can't play with Beth in heaven when I die, because she didn't grow up,' said Richard.

"That is such a horribly adult thought for a four-year-old,"

"In a matter of just seven months, Will went from being the youngest child to the middle child to the oldest child in our family. That is a massive transition for him to go through.

"I have two fantastic boys, but the relationship between a dad and his daughter is different. Beth was my princess."

Inquest verdict

AFTER a three-day inquest, coroner Richard Wittington said he could not give a simple explanation as to how Beth Bowen died.

Delivering a narrative verdict at Oxford Coroner's Court yesterday, Dr Wittington said she died due to damage to her aorta caused during the splenectomy operation on July 27, 2006.

"The cause of that damage to the aorta was some unspecified surgical implement," said Dr Wittington.

He ruled out a morcellator, a rotating cutting tool never before used in paediatric surgery, as the cause of the lacerations to the blood vessel, even though it was being used by surgeons for the first time at the moment Beth's heart rate dropped.

Bethany, known as Beth, had a hereditary condition called spherocytosis, in which the body produces wrong-shaped red blood cells, which are attacked by the spleen.

Beth's parents were not told by doctors that the morcellator would be used when they signed consent forms agreeing to the operation. Despite the doctors saying they should have explained the use of the new piece of equipment to her parents Dr Wittington said he would not be making any recommendations to the hospital or the Royal College of Surgeons about obtaining consent or providing training for new surgical tools.

After the verdict Paul Rumley, of Withy King Solicitors, said he would be pursuing a clinical negligence case against the hospital on behalf of the family.