How could this vulnerable new mother just walk out of hospital to her death?
NHS inquiry after bodies of mum and baby found in gorge
HOSPITAL chiefs have launched an investigation into how a depressed mother was able to leave a maternity ward with her newborn daughter, after both were found dead.
Charlotte Bevan, who is believed to have a history of severe mental illness, walked out of hospital with four- day- old Zaani Tiana wearing hospital slippers and no coat.
Miss Bevan, 30, was found 1.5 miles away at the foot of a gorge late on Wednesday night, after a walker spotted her slippers and a baby’s blanket on the cliff’s edge. Yesterday police found her baby’s body on the cliff face nearby.
CCTV footage had shown Miss Bevan walking past three nurses gathered around a vending machine at St Michael’s Hospital in Bristol without being stopped. A hospital spokesman has admitted that patients in the maternity ward are free to come and go as they please, prompting calls for
‘They completely failed her’
greater monitoring of new mothers – and especially those with a known history of mental illness.
Miss Bevan had walked 1.5 miles to the picturesque Avon Gorge, just five minutes away from the home she shared with her partner and Zaani’s father, Pascal Malbrouck, in upmarket Clifton Village. The new mother, a charity worker, had been educated at the elite Wells Cathedral music school near Bristol.
Family and friends said she had first suffered with depression following the sudden death of her father in 2000 from a brain tumour. Posts on her Facebook profile revealed that she had been ‘ hearing voices’ and needed ‘love and support’. She may also have been taken off her medication to breastfeed, triggering a decline in her mental state.
Last night Miss Bevan’s mother Rachel Fortune, 59, paid tribute to her ‘beautiful daughter and granddaughter’ who are now ‘at peace’.
She also thanked ‘all the hospital staff at St Michael’s and the mental healthcare team, past and present’. However Miss Bevan’s friend Jessie Saul said a member of staff ‘ should have stopped’ her from leaving the hospital.
‘They knew she was a risk,’ she added. ‘ They just let her walk straight out. It’s ridiculous. They completely failed her. I hope they make serious changes so this is never allowed to happen again.’
Ruth Hagin, of the Bristol-based charity Mothers For Mothers, said: ‘If they knew she had a history of depression she should have been monitored more closely. I’m assum- ing they were unable to because they were understaffed.’
One local mother, Sophie Barker, wrote on Avon and Somerset Police’s Facebook page: ‘Having stayed on the ward she was on, post-9pm there is a skeleton staff who I also feel for today. They do their best in hard circumstances, and sadly Charlotte left after visiting hours ended and the ward becomes very empty.’ Mr Mal- brouck, 37, who saw his girlfriend and baby half an hour before they left the hospital, said Miss Bevan was badly sleep deprived, but happy. He said he could not think why she would disappear.
A spokesman for University Hospitals Bristol Trust said yesterday it ‘will be conducting a thorough review of the care Charlotte and her baby received to see if there was anything we could have done’ to prevent their ‘tragic and unexplained’ deaths.
He added that pregnant women were screened for new and existing mental health problems and were assessed for increased risk of perinatal mental ill health. ‘Women who are identified as potentially being at risk have consultant- led care, involvement of appropriate mental health teams as necessary and involvement of their GP,’ he said.
‘We cannot stop any mother leaving unless there are legal restrictions on her movements.’
But Roger Goss, of Patient Concern, said: ‘There should be secu- rity keeping an eye on who is coming and going. Miss Bevan should not have been able to walk past the nurses at the vending machine. You would have thought her walking along carrying a baby would have rung some alarm bells with them.’
Rachael Dobson, of the charity PANDAS – the Pre- and Post-Natal Depression Advice Service, added: ‘All this should have been preventable. It’s a concern that someone has been able to leave the ward unnoticed without having to tell someone where they are going.’
Dr Margaret Oates, a psychologist who runs a unit for mothers with mental health difficulties in London, said Miss Bevan may have been suffering postpartum psychosis – the sudden onset of psychotic symptoms following childbirth.
‘This is much more severe than postnatal depression and requires anyone suffering from it to have a very close eye kept on them,’ she said. ‘Those with mental health problems previously are at far greater risk of developing it.’