Hospital at fault over baby death

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A couple from Worcestershire have received a five-figure pay out after hospital staff missed warning signs that led to their baby's death.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust admitted fault after staff failed to perform routine checks during 37-year-old Nadia Jones' labour in 2004.

It has apologised to her and her husband Steve, of Kidderminster.

Their baby son, Harry, died of oxygen starvation and blood poisoning seven hours after being born.

The family's lawyer Guy Forster said it was "every parent's worst nightmare".

I don't think Steve or I will ever completely get over what happened Nadia Jones

Their suffering was made worse when they were mistakenly told their son was stillborn following an emergency Caesarian operation, when in fact he survived for seven hours afterwards.

The couple's problems began when staff at Worcestershire Royal Hospital failed to detect that Mrs Jones had an E-coli infection when she went in after her waters broke last September, four days before Harry was born.

Mr Forster said that because the infection had been passed to Harry, it should have prompted midwives to induce labour, but she was instead advised to go home.

It went undetected on two further visits, until on 15 September Harry's heartbeat could not be heard and the emergency operation was carried out.

'Warning signs'

Mr Forster said that because of the misunderstanding over whether Harry was alive left his parents only a few minutes to be with him before he died in their arms.

"Harry would, in all likelihood, be alive and well today if Worcestershire Royal Hospital had provided adequate care and reacted to the clear warning signs that he was in distress," he said.

Mrs Jones, 37, said: "To lose a child after carrying him for nine months is bad enough but to discover that basic errors resulted in Harry's death and that they were entirely preventable has been very difficult to cope with.

We appreciate that... an apology will undoubtedly feel inadequate Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust spokesman

"I don't think Steve or I will ever completely get over what happened."

A spokesman for the Trust said the hospital's staff wanted to convey their "profound regret" and apologised for the "shortcomings" in Harry's ante and post-natal care.

He said: "We appreciate that the past four years must have been an extremely difficult time and that an apology will undoubtedly feel inadequate.

"We are also conscious of how inadequate financial remuneration will seem in light of what has happened."

He added the trust was working hard to improve its services and prevent anything similar happening again.