South Wales Police Investigation into Southall's experiments on children welcomed - appeal for parents to come forward
Campaigning MP, John Hemming, has welcomed South Wales Police's launch of an investigation into experiments performed by Professor David Southall of North Staffordshire Hospital on children. He has called for other parents whose children were treated directly or indirectly by Professor Southall who may have concerns, to write to him at the House of Commons so he can pass information to the appropriate police.
"Professor Southall", said Mr Hemming, "wrote in 1985 that he would not ask for consent from parents before he put their children into some of his experiments. In the published material on the BMJ website it is quite clear that his experiments caused harm to some of the children involved in the experiments."
"The experiments based upon protocol 85.02 involved firstly stopping babies from breathing in when at “Functional Residual Capacity” (when they have breathed out) for 10 seconds on 10 different occasions. This was done with a face mask. It was done in both of two sleep states. The babies were subjected to 1.5% CO2 for 5 minutes in each sleep state. (normal CO2 level in air is 0.04%). Then they were given a 5 minute rest. Then the babies were subjected to 15% oxygen for 5 minutes. Normal atmospheric Oxygen is just under 21%. After this they were given 4% CO2 and the time was measured until they woke up or changed state."
"These experiments performed mainly on babies were not for the benefit of the babies, but to find out what effect it had. We have not been able to find any published results as to what happened to all of the children in Professor Southall's experiments and what overall impact the experimentation had on the babies and young children involved."
"Professor Southall has kept secret files known as Special Case files. These included medical records. This information needs to be transferred into the patients' medical records so that all the diagnoses are kept in one place and is available to benefit the patients."
"There are a large number of questions relating to the experiments of Professor Southall that need to be answered. However, I welcome South Wales Police in launching their investigation as part of the process of finding out the truth of what happened."
"I am callling for parents whose children were treated on by professor Southall and suffered harm or were experimented on without the informed consent of their parents to write to me at John Hemming MP, House of Commons, London SW1 0AA so I can pass the information to the appropriate police forces."
Notes
Published Material on BMJ website that shows harm to babies from experiments
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/317/7159/675
(see Nicholas Pace's letter)
"Professor Southall", said Mr Hemming, "wrote in 1985 that he would not ask for consent from parents before he put their children into some of his experiments. In the published material on the BMJ website it is quite clear that his experiments caused harm to some of the children involved in the experiments."
"The experiments based upon protocol 85.02 involved firstly stopping babies from breathing in when at “Functional Residual Capacity” (when they have breathed out) for 10 seconds on 10 different occasions. This was done with a face mask. It was done in both of two sleep states. The babies were subjected to 1.5% CO2 for 5 minutes in each sleep state. (normal CO2 level in air is 0.04%). Then they were given a 5 minute rest. Then the babies were subjected to 15% oxygen for 5 minutes. Normal atmospheric Oxygen is just under 21%. After this they were given 4% CO2 and the time was measured until they woke up or changed state."
"These experiments performed mainly on babies were not for the benefit of the babies, but to find out what effect it had. We have not been able to find any published results as to what happened to all of the children in Professor Southall's experiments and what overall impact the experimentation had on the babies and young children involved."
"Professor Southall has kept secret files known as Special Case files. These included medical records. This information needs to be transferred into the patients' medical records so that all the diagnoses are kept in one place and is available to benefit the patients."
"There are a large number of questions relating to the experiments of Professor Southall that need to be answered. However, I welcome South Wales Police in launching their investigation as part of the process of finding out the truth of what happened."
"I am callling for parents whose children were treated on by professor Southall and suffered harm or were experimented on without the informed consent of their parents to write to me at John Hemming MP, House of Commons, London SW1 0AA so I can pass the information to the appropriate police forces."
Notes
Published Material on BMJ website that shows harm to babies from experiments
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/317/7159/675
(see Nicholas Pace's letter)
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