Our medical negligence solicitors helped a couple claim compensation from an NHS Trust after their new born baby died after injuries at birth.
Laura and Stefan were expecting a baby girl just before Christmas. On 13 December, Laura went to Sandwell hospital in advanced stages of labour.
At the hospital, the midwifery staff repeatedly ignored Laura for an hour and a half. Laura asked many times for pain relief but the midwife attending her rudely dismissed Laura and said “not at 3 centimetres you’re not” and told Laura to just walk around her hospital room.
After a further two hours, Laura started to bleed and felt an urge to push. Laura’s mother, who was with her at the time, went to find the midwife. The midwife told Laura’s mother that she had other patients to deal with.
By the time the midwife got to Laura, she told Laura not to push for 50 minutes, even though Laura felt a natural urge to. This means that the baby is ready to be delivered, but the midwife told Laura to wait.
Eventually, Laura gave birth to her daughter Imogen. But Imogen was in a very poor state. She was blue and completely floppy and the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. She wasn’t breathing and the midwife had to resuscitate her.
Imogen had to go to a neonatal clinic where doctors put her on life support. Over the next few days, her health got worse and Laura and Stefan had to make the devastating decision to turn off her life support. But, against the odds, Imogen carried on breathing.
Laura and Stefan decided to take Imogen home after doctors told them there wasn’t much more they could do for her. Five days later, Imogen died in her sleep two days before Christmas.
How We Helped
Laura and Stefan were devastated to lose their child and wanted answers from the hospital and the midwife. Laura said “Imogen should not have died. I had a healthy pregnancy and all my earlier scans were fine. For everything to go so badly wrong at the last minute has been very difficult to cope with.”
The couple contacted out medical negligence team to help them make a claim against the people responsible for their daughter’s death.
Jenna Harris, a medical negligence lawyer, led the investigation into the care Laura and Imogen received at the hospital.
Jenna worked together with Laura and her family to get the answers they deserved. It was clear that the midwife was extremely rude and dismissive and ignored Laura. The midwife also ignored the warning signs that something was wrong and should’ve acted quicker.
A Successful Settlement
Jenna helped Laura make a compensation claim against Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust. They apologised to Laura immediately and admitted that the monitoring of Imogen was ‘unacceptable’. The midwife responsible also resigned.
Our team also urged the Trust and the Nursing and Midwifery Council to retrain midwives to protect future patients.
The Trust admitted full responsibility and Jenna successfully negotiated a five-figure settlement. This was much more than Laura and Stefan were expecting. Although nothing will make up for the tragic loss of their daughter, the settlement meant they got the justice Imogen deserved.
Jenna Harris said:
“This is a tragic case and Laura and Stefan are completely devastated by what has happened.
The care that Laura received from the midwife would appear to have fallen well short of acceptable standards. Not only was she extremely rude and dismissive to Laura and her family but, when it was clear that something was wrong and the baby needed to be urgently delivered, the midwife ignored the warning signs.”
If you or your child has suffered an injury at birth, contact our team today on 0370 1500 100.
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