Maternity hospital pays out over failings in baby tragedy

A couple have received compensation from a maternity hospital after it admitted serious failings following the death of their baby son.

Joshua Hicks was just 17-and-a-half hours old when he died after staff at Hull Women and Children's Hospital failed to pick up on an abnormal heartbeat, a result of the umbilical cord being wrapped six times around his neck.

His parents Kirsty, 31, and Paul, 36, from Hull, have received an undisclosed sum after Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust agreed the settlement following a claim of clinical negligence.

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Mark Waterstone, an independent expert instructed by the couple's solicitor, said the labour was "grossly mismanaged from the outset" and Mrs Hicks received "an appalling level of care".

He said clinicians "seemed totally unable to interpret" readings from the monitor that checks the baby's heartbeat "resulting in a level of care, which in my opinion, can only be described as deplorable." The child could have been delivered by Caesarean section.

There was also a two-hour delay in transferring him to the neonatal unit, where he suffered other complications, and later a cardiac arrest.

The trust's chief executive, Phil Morley, apologised to Mr and Mrs Hicks. He said: "When the health service gets it right we do a fantastic job.

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"But when we get it wrong, we get it really wrong and it's the individual and their families who pay the price. In this case there are no excuses for the serious failings that occurred.

"We ought to hang our heads in shame at times that a system as great as the NHS can fail in such a spectacular way."

The Hicks are now considering reporting their case to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and the General Medical Council (GMC).

Mrs Hicks, who has since had three daughters, said: "I thought getting the answers would make it all right, but it's made everything worse.

"I feel angry and alone. Nobody knows exactly how it feels. My daughters will never know Joshua. As far as they know, he's a photograph."

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