A VIRUS that caused the death of a 14-month-old toddler in Basildon has surged amongst children following the Covid pandemic, a report critical of the hospital care has said. Viviana-Ray Butnaru died from myocarditis – inflamed heart muscle – caused by parvovirus at Basildon Hospital on October 25, 2024.
Serious concerns around the care she was given – especially around the failure of x-rays showing an inflamed heart being not properly passed on to clinicians – have been raised in a future deaths report. The report also flagged the surge in the prevalence of the virus since Covid.
An expert speaking at an earlier inquest into her death said that more needed to be done to raise awareness of the danger of the virus.
A statement from Jyoti Gill, assistant coroner, for the coroner area of Essex in her report said: “The expert went on to say that parvovirus was the likely cause of the myocarditis and that acute fulminant myocarditis is characterised by the rapid onset of severe heart failure and cardiogenic shock, requiring advanced pharmacological or mechanical circulatory support.
“The expert also stated that there has been a recent surge in parvovirus amongst children following the Covid pandemic. It was stated that diagnosing this remains challenging and that it would be helpful for paediatricians to have guidance on how to identify such cases.”
The report added that “raising awareness of the existence of parvovirus considering the surge of this virus in children post the Covid 19 pandemic”, was a concern.
In the specific case of Viviana-Ray chest X rays were taken which identified an enlarged heart but this information was not recorded anywhere but verbally handed over by the emergency department registrar to the paediatric registrar.
The paediatric registrar in evidence at the inquest did not recall this verbal handover. The paediatric registrar had not identified an enlarged heart upon her review of the chest X ray.
Blood gases were taken which showed Viviana-Ray to be in metabolic acidosis, but these were not reviewed by the paediatric registrar when the results were initially made available during her shift.
Aside from the initial observation, no other observations or nursing documentation was completed during Viviana-Ray’s attendance at the paediatric emergency department.
Expert evidence in this case noted that by the time the heart failure was clinically obvious there would not have been an opportunity to reverse the situation as Viviana- Ray went into cardiac arrest shortly afterwards.
The coroner has given Viviana-Ray’s cause of death as complications from myocarditis caused by parvovirus, contributed to by bronchiolitis and bronchial pneumonia.
Christine Blanshard, Chief Medical Officer for Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our thoughts and condolences are with Viviana-Ray’s family, and we are sorry there were missed opportunities in her care. Myocarditis as a result of parvovirus is an uncommon cause of illness in children, so we have shared the learning from Viviana’s sad death to raise awareness in our clinical teams of the signs to look for and improved clinical observations.”
