Baby tragedy couple face new setback in quest for ‘justice’

John Steel and his wife Marianne had been trying for seven years to start a family when they found out she was pregnant.

But their baby Joseph became increasingly distressed owing to a lack of oxygen during labour in hospital in Pontefract and doctors were unable to revive him following an emergency delivery.

The couple remain devastated by their ordeal and have been told they can never have children.

A report by the hospital found Joseph’s heart trace had been misinterpreted and a blood test which would have warned of his worsening plight was not carried out. If it had been, Joseph could have been born several hours earlier.

It also found the consultant in charge had been involved in “organisational issues” unrelated to her on-call duties and had failed to examine Mrs Steel even though she was a high-risk patient. It also pointed to the inexperience of a junior doctor as she struggled to deal with the difficult labour.

The General Medical Council was preparing a case against the two doctors but now the couple are facing another blow after being told the GMC wants to cancel the hearing.

Mr Steel, 44, said doctors should be held to account.

“All this could have been avoided if only the staff on duty and particularly the doctors responsible on that day had done their jobs properly,” he said.

The couple said there appeared to be confusion during Joseph’s birth in October 2007. The junior doctor had to leave the room to speak to the specialist on call Catherine Reiss, who did not examine Mrs Steel but gave instructions about her care.

Mrs Steel, 46, said it had been devastating to find out their son’s death could have been avoided. They had been determined to speak out at the GMC but now faced being denied that chance.

“I just cannot believe in this day and age, that you can go through a happy, healthy pregnancy, go into hospital, which you think is the best and safest place to have a baby, and come out how we did,” she said.

“We stupidly thought being in hospital with people who know what they are doing would be the best we could do. We have got to live with that and so have they.”

The couple, from Kirk Smeaton, near Pontefract, have been awarded damages after the hospital admitted failings in the care provided.

Their legal team argued staff had failed to recognise heart trace patterns were abnormal, indicating delivery should have been carried out, which would have prevented Joseph’s death. They also complained to the GMC over the failure by Dr Reiss to examine Mrs Steel.

Mahesh Nagar, associate medical director at the Mid Yorkshire NHS trust, said: “We immediately carried out a full and thorough investigation back in 2007 and have implemented the recommended changes to practice. Staffing levels are reviewed daily as part of the management of safe care. At the time of this incident, staffing levels on the ward were safe and appropriate.”

The GMC agreed last year to hold a fitness to practise hearing for both doctors. But earlier this month it told the couple it was applying to cancel the hearing having taken legal advice and “having considered all the relevant case law and the fact that there are no other concerns about either doctor, the GMC does not believe there is a realistic prospect of the doctors’ fitness to practise being found to be currently impaired”.

It added it “fully recognises the seriousness of what happened during the birth of your son and the terrible consequences for you both”.

Concerns have been raised nationally about growing numbers of mistakes being made in reading heart trace scans, leading to deaths of babies and leaving others severely disabled. A new electronic foetal monitoring project is being launched next month to improve the skills of doctors and midwives in interpreting scans.