Six-Year-Old Girl Dies After Needle Pierces Artery During Bone Marrow Biopsy

Six-year-old Amelia “Millie” Ridout tragically died in June 2022 after a needle accidentally pierced a major artery during a bone marrow biopsy at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, England. The procedure, intended to investigate a suspected blood condition, resulted in “massive, catastrophic” internal bleeding.

During the procedure, a pediatric doctor noticed a warning sign that something had gone wrong, but a consultant hematologist dismissed any concerns and instructed the doctor to continue. Shortly after, Millie went into cardiac arrest and died during emergency surgery to repair the damage.

Her father, Matthew Ridout, described feeling suicidal after the accident. He has since channeled his grief into fundraising for the neonatal intensive care unit at Luton and Dunstable Hospital, where Millie was cared for after her premature birth. He also undertook the Three Peaks challenge on her seventh birthday as a way to feel close to her. “All I want to do is be as close to Amelia on her day, with being as high as I can in different locations seemed to be the only solution,” he wrote on his fundraising page.

Mr. Ridout paid tribute to his daughter on JustGiving, saying, “Where do I begin…? What does a father say when he loses the one entirety that makes him whole?” He described Millie as a loving child who touched the lives of everyone she met. He also shared that she was born prematurely, weighing just two pounds and four ounces, and spent her first six weeks in the NICU.

Area Coroner Elizabeth Gray for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has called for national guidelines to be established for this type of procedure. She issued a Prevention of Future Deaths report, urging the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the British Society for Haematology, and NHS England to develop national guidelines and a standard operating procedure for bone marrow aspiration and trephine biopsies, including recommended methodology. She also called for a national database to track these procedures and their outcomes. The organizations have until April 8th to respond to the report.

The inquest heard that Millie had been diagnosed with pancytopenia. During the biopsy, the trephine needle accidentally penetrated the pelvic bone and pierced the iliac vessels, causing the fatal bleeding. A spokesperson for Cambridge University Hospitals Trust expressed their condolences and stated that they will review the coroner’s findings to improve care.