Family of baby failed by NHS calls for action

Edith Smith did not breathe for eight minutes after she was delivered at Dewsbury and District Hospital.

Her life was saved only after desperate efforts to revive her by doctors at the hospital before she was given state-of-the-art care at Leeds General Infirmary.

Early scans revealed she had suffered brain damage and although their worst fears have been allayed, her parents Hannah Wyatt and Sean Smith are still anxiously watching her development.

The couple, of Birkenshaw, near Bradford, remain angry over their treatment at the hospital last May after an investigation revealed a series of missed opportunities to safely deliver Edith. Staff repeatedly failed to spot abnormal heart traces which showed signs she was in distress more than five hours before her delivery.

The errors have echoes of previous serious incidents at the maternity unit which has since twice been criticised over staffing levels by inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) who last month issued a formal warning ordering improvements.

Miss Wyatt, 36, who runs a property management letting company, said: “In her first year we have just been constantly worrying – we cannot sit back and enjoy her.

“The whole thing has been so traumatic and upsetting and could have been avoided. I don’t want that to happen to anyone else. It’s such small things that could have been done to prevent such a terrible event.”

Mr Smith, 39, a chartered surveyor, said the CQC report had not come as a surprise and they were concerned action had not been taken to fix problems.

“A lot of time is spent putting improvement plans in place but changes are a long time coming. Action could have been taken on the ground rather than waiting for reports or inquiries to trigger it,” he said.

Miss Wyatt added: “We’d like to think after one incident like this they would do everything they could to prevent it from happening again. But it was as if they were crossing their fingers and hoping births would go okay.”

The couple are taking legal action against the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust through personal injury specialists Irwin Mitchell and have also reported a doctor involved in Edith’s care to the General Medical Council after discovering she had left the region and no longer came under the jurisdiction of the local NHS.

The couple’s first child Harry had been born at Dewsbury in November 2009 and they returned in May last year for Edith’s delivery.

They were assured by the midwife on duty that labour was progressing routinely even concerns were raised about Edith’s heart traces. An investigation by the hospital later found these developed abnormalities at around 11pm but were repeatedly missed by the midwife and a doctor.

From around 1am, Miss Wyatt began to feel very ill, suffering pain despite a painkilling epidural, becoming dehydrated and developing a temperature.

“We started thinking this isn’t right, something is wrong,” she said. “But at no point were we told there was a problem until she was whisked away.”

Edith was not breathing when she was born in a forceps delivery at 4.30am. The couple said they were left for nearly three hours afterwards not knowing if she had survived before being told she had suffered oxygen deprivation. They were warned she could have problems with movement, co-ordination and learning difficulties before she was transferred for special cooling treatment in Leeds.

The internal investigation into the incident, rated as “severe” by the hospital, found there had been a failure to pick up abnormalities in Edith’s heart trace or act on them, no blood test had been carried out to check for signs of distress and communications had been poor both between staff and with the family. There was no evidence another opinion had been sought to examine heart traces, even though it was part of unit guidelines.

The midwife had been referred for extra training but they were unhappy the doctor had not faced any further action.

An external review by the Local Supervisory Authority for midwives made recommendations to the trust to improve care.

The couple said Edith was doing a lot better than they had been warned to expect following intensive physiotherapy. However, her long-term prospects remain unclear.