SCANDAL HOSPITAL 70min delay killed our baby
“Wesley and I have suffered immeasurably from losing Alba May.”
Rochelle, 34, of Enfield, North London, said: “While nothing will ever bring her back, we want to know that if mistakes have been made, then lessons have truly been learnt by the Trust and other parents won’t have to suffer the same tragedy.”
Office worker Wesley, 38, told how he cradled his daughter in his arms in her final few hours.
He said: “She looked so perfect, but inside her head there was so much brain damage that she couldn’t have survived. We want answers from the hospital because we believe this shouldn’t have happened.”
A postmortem confirmed Alba May had severe oxygen starvation to her brain after inhaling lumps of meconium ( baby faeces) into her lungs.
The meconium had been detected in Rochelle’s waters at the birthing centre but the newly- qualified midwife, failing to understand its significance, and did not take action for 40 minutes.
When Rochelle was eventually rushed to the labour ward for a forceps delivery her baby’s heart rate had fallen to just 52 beats a minute. Rochelle said: “We knew it wasn’t good. She didn’t cry and after struggling to get her to breath she was rushed away to intensive care.”
Alba May was transferred to nearby Homerton Hospital where doctors tried to reverse and limit the brain damage by cooling her down on a special mattress, but she died on August 12 last year. Rochelle said: “The staff were wonderful but we were told her vital signs were not good and that all her organs were starting to fail.”
North Middlesex Hospital Trust analysis of the tragedy concluded: “There were care and service delivery problems in this case which most likely contributed to the sad death of this baby.”
It admitted there was a failure about meconium in its guidance notes for midwives and a lack of supervision by the more senior midwife for the newly qualified colleague.
North Middlesex Hospital also did no vital postnatal checks on Rochelle for four days and made the couple wait three weeks for bereavement counselling. A health visitor