Parents of boy who choked on pasta reach six-figure settlement with nursery

The parents of an infant who died after choking on pasta bolognese while at a nursery have described reaching a six-figure settlement with the childcare centre as “the end of a long road”.

Oliver Steeper was nine months old when he was fed a chopped-up meal by staff at the Jelly Beans Day Nursery in Kent on September 23 2021.

After choking and falling unconscious he was taken to William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and later to an intensive care unit at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, where he was found to have food lodged in his lungs.

He had suffered a catastrophic brain injury because of the lack of oxygen and he died six days later.

Oliver’s parents Zoe and Lewis Steeper said they had not begun to wean him on to solid food yet and that he was not ready for it.

Represented by the law firm Leigh Day, they have now settled a claim with the nursery for an undisclosed, six-figure number.

The Jelly Beans Day Nursery, which is now closed, reached the settlement without admitting liability.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr and Mrs Steeper said their legal and campaigning efforts were “never about the money” but “accountability”.

Since their son’s death, they have pushed for new standards in first aid training for childcare professionals and founded a charity that provides anti-choking devices to nurseries across the UK.

At an inquest last year, coroner Katrina Hepburn heard evidence that the “level of first aid provided by the nursery staff was overall of a poor standard”.

She wrote to the Government saying that the general standard at the time of having one first-aider per nursery could “pose a risk to future life”.

In response, ministers introduced reforms that came into force in September, which include making sure there is always a staff member in the room with a valid paediatric first-aid certificate while children are eating.

Mrs Steeper said it was “surreal” and “bittersweet” to see these reforms, “because Oli had to die”.

She continued: “I feel like if it hadn’t been Oli, it would have been another child.

“We hear stories about children who are still dying from choking in childcare settings so I still think there is a long way to go but whenever we hear it, it is comforting to know that underneath it all is Oli.”

She described her son as a “very cheeky, cheerful” boy who “was happy all the time” and said the memory of the day of the choking is now “all one big blur”.

Recalling his arrival at the hospital in London, Mr Steeper said: “It was like a scene out of The Matrix where you’re frozen in time and all the doctors are doing 200mph all around you.

“Then this one lady stepped out of the cloud of people and said, ‘You need to prepare yourself, he’s not going to survive’, at which point our world just fell apart because we had hope all the way until that point.”

He continued: “We didn’t even get a decision to make, because the damage was so bad, because of the time he was without oxygen.”

Mr Steeper also said that following Oliver’s death, he and his wife agreed to organ donation without hesitation and later learned that his kidneys had gone to a 60-year-old man.

He said: “What an amazing thing that is, to know he’s gotten someone off dialysis and given someone a life.”

Their charity, the Oliver Steeper Foundation, now fundraises for the distribution of a device called a LifeVac, which works in a similar way to a plunger and can suck objects out of the throat of a child or adult if something gets stuck.

The couple said they have already used it on their second child after he began choking on Calpol.

Mrs Steeper said: “It’s very humbling when people come up to you at a summer fete and you might get a little kid that puts a pound in the bucket and the next thing someone gives you a £20 note. It’s mind-blowing.”

She continued: “Generally, we have been overawed by how many people have come out and supported us, especially with the way things are with the cost of living.

“That’s the biggest thing that has come out of all of this, the whole process has changed us as people.”