Baby's hospital overdose sparks police inquiry

A baby girl born three months prematurely was in a critical condition in Great Ormond Street hospital yesterday after receiving a massive overdose of glucose. Police have been called to investigate whether Poppy Davies could have been given the glucose, which has left her paralysed and brain damaged, deliberately.

The two-week-old baby was transferred to Great Ormond Street on Saturday from the hospital in Norwich where she was born for a minor operation. On Sunday the hospital called in police after it became clear that something had gone terribly wrong. She is on a life support system in intensive care and doctors say her condition is critical and her chances of survival poor.

Her parents, Carly Davies, 22, and David Daly, 21, of Grays, Essex, were keeping vigil at her bedside. Nurses were due to give Poppy a routine dose of glucose intravenously on Sunday but a blood check suggested the actual dose she received was many times higher.

A spokesman for Great Ormond Street said it was "trust policy" to involve police as it was "one possibility" that the baby had been harmed intentionally.

Scotland Yard said officers from its child abuse unit were investigating. Police are understood to be examining medical equipment in case it could have malfunctioned or been accidentally or deliberately damaged.