Stillbirth mum sent ‘congrats’

A woman still grieving for her two stillborn children was mistakenly sent a letter congratulating her on ‘‘the arrival of your baby’’.

The Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) has apologised to Sarah Wilson, of Christchurch, who was extremely upset after the mix-up last week.

Wilson, 45, lost babies in 2001 and 2010 because of a rare blood disorder.

Last week, she received a letter from The Christchurch Doctors medical centre about ‘‘your new arrival’’.

The letter said the national immunisation register had contacted the medical centre with the child’s details and ‘‘we invite you to enrol your baby with our practice’’.

An enrolment form for the baby girl was attached. It included the girl’s full name, date of birth and NHI number, as well as Wilson’s address, home and mobile phone numbers.

Wilson said she was not enrolled with The Christchurch Doctors and had no idea how or why they had her details.

She said the letter was extremely distressing.

‘‘I thought ‘Oh my god, you can’t be serious’. ‘‘I’m the worst person this could have happened to.’’

CDHB chief medical officer Sue Nightingale phoned Wilson to apologise on Monday.

Nightingale could not provide an explanation about what had happened, but said the error was being investigated.

Wilson, who also received a letter of apology from The Christchurch Doctors, said she wanted an assurance a similar mistake would not happen to anyone else.

‘‘When you’ve had a baby die because people have made mistakes and then someone sends you a letter saying congratulations on your daughter’s birth, how would you feel?’’

The privacy breach has further undermined Wilson’s trust in district health boards.

‘‘On Wednesday I’m meant to go and have a colposcopy at Christchurch Women’s. I’ve cancelled that, I’m not going because I don’t trust them.’’

In 2010, Wilson’s baby girl died when she was given the incorrect amount of blood platelets in utero during a transfusion procedure.

It took six days before she could deliver the dead baby.

‘‘Then the Auckland District Health Board sent me a bill for $2500 for the procedure that killed her.’’

Wilson said she battled for three years to get an apology from the doctor and ADHB for the error.

A statement issued on behalf of the CDHB and The Christchurch Doctors said all affected parties were contacted as soon as last week’s letter error came to their attention.

‘‘Now that our investigations are almost complete, we plan to write to both women to apologise again more formally and offer some reassurance,’’ the statement said.

A CDHB spokesman said privacy breaches were rare, but staff were looking at how a similar incident could be prevented.