A mother and father from Great Cornard have paid tribute to their six-year-old son who “brought sunshine to our lives”, speaking as his inquest drew to a close.

On Wednesday, the inquest for Charlie Mitcham concluded at Suffolk Coroners’ Court. Charlie died on June 11 last year, weeks before his seventh birthday, having lived with chronic kidney disease and cerebral palsy since the days after his birth.

Over the course of the inquest, it was explained to the court that Charlie arrived on August 1, 2016, having been born prematurely at 29 weeks. Shortly after birth he was fitted with both an umbilical artery catheter (UAC) and an umbilical venous catheter (UVC), the latter being used to provide fluids, nutrients and medication to Charlie. 

Charlie remained stable until August 6, when he rapidly declined, with his blood pressure becoming dangerously low.

Over the course of the inquest, senior coroner for Suffolk Nigel Parsley explored the possibility that the UVC had wrongly been inserted into a branch of Charlie’s left portal vein.

However, he concluded on Wednesday that this was not the case.

Instead, he found that the UVC had been correctly inserted on August 1 but stopped working either late on August 5 or the early hours of August 6. He found that the catheter had likely migrated through the wall of the vein into which it was inserted. This is called extravasation, and is a known complication of UVCs. 

It was, said Mr Parsley, a “tragic coincidence” that Charlie contracted sepsis and extravasation at the same time. This meant that, when the sepsis caused Charlie’s blood pressure to drop, medications combat this were not being fed into the right place but were leaking into his abdomen.

This was realised at around 6pm when Charlie was transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital.

The result was that for the majority of August 6, Charlie’s blood pressure remained critically low, at some points being undetectable. Because his vital organs were starved of oxygen, Charlie was left with permanent injuries to his brain and kidneys.

He ultimately died as a result of the conditions caused by these injuries, with Mr Parsley recording a narrative conclusion summarising the facts of Charlie’s death.

Speaking after the court session, Charlie’s parents, James and Christina Mitcham, paid tribute to their son.

They said: “Charlie was the most adorable boy, and we felt blessed he was our son. Despite the challenges he faced he was such a happy little boy who brought sunshine to our lives. He and his sister, Alice, were inseparable.

“It’s almost impossible to find the words to describe the hurt we feel over Charlie’s death. While we tried to lead as normal a family life as we could, we’ve also spent years trying to get answers regarding Charlie’s injuries.

“We’d do anything to have Charlie back in our lives but know that’s impossible. Listening to the evidence has been incredibly difficult but it’s something we were determined to do, to at least honour our boy’s memory. We thank the coroner for their thorough investigation.”

They were represented during proceedings by medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchell Solicitors.

Josh Beszant, representing Charlie’s loved ones, said: “This is truly tragic case which has left Charlie’s family heartbroken."