The Ipswich Crown Court has heard that the death of an 8-year-old boy could have been prevented had a Boots eye specialist better completed an eye examination.
Vincent Barker, known to friends and family as Vinnie, died in July 2012. Five months prior to his death, Vinnie had received a routine eye test at the Boots Opticians in Upper Brook Street, Ipswich, Suffolk.
The court has heard that the examination, completed by locum optometrist Honey Rose, was so below standards it could be classed as “criminal.”
Rose has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter.
According to The Metro, prosecutor Jonathan Rees told the court that the prosecution “allege that Vinnie’s death was preventable and would have been prevented had the defendant, Ms Rose, done her job properly.”
Vinnie’s death was a result of hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is a condition of excessive accumulation of fluid in the brain. The excess fluid is cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) — a clear fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. The excessive accumulation of CSF results in an abnormal widening of spaces in the brain ventricles. This creates harmful, often fatal, pressure on the tissues of the brain.
The court has heard that if Rose had conducted a proper examination, swelling on the optic discs would have been detected.
Rees told the court:
“Given the risk of death involved, her conduct was so bad in all of the circumstances – it fell so far below the standards to be expected of a competent optometrist – that it was criminal.”
It was noted by the court that images taken during the examination show “obvious abnormalities” in each of the child’s eyes.
“The prosecution say that the abnormalities in his optic discs would have been obvious to any competent optometrist who had examined them,” said Rees.
Rose had a duty of care to refer Vinnie for further and urgent examination.
Instead, Rose’s assessment said that he needed no further treatment.
Ree’s told the court that Rose’s failure to detect the swelling of Vinnie’s optic discs was a “significant contributory factor” to his death, and that had she noticed the swelling the boy would undoubtedly have survived.
Rose claims that she was not shown the correct images of Vinnie’s eyes and that an error had led her to view an older image of the eyes.
Rose claims that when she was shown the retinal images taken of Vinnie in February 2012, she said they were not the ones she had seen because they showed a ‘completely pathological problem’ which would have caused her to make an emergency referral that day.
Rose qualified as an optometrist in India in 2005, before completing an optometry course at City University in 2007. She worked as a locum for companies such as Specsavers and Boots.
