£40,000 for mother told baby’s death was ‘one of those things’
A MOTHer whose baby was stillborn when an emergency caesarean was delayed was told his death was just ‘one of those things’, an inquest heard.
Mother- of-two Laura Monks was eight months pregnant when she went to royal Albert edward Infirmary in Wigan after becoming concerned that baby rueben was not moving.
She was hooked up to a foetal monitor, which showed that rueben’s heart rate had some abnormalities – known as a pathological trace – that should have meant an emergency caesarean was carried out within 30 minutes.
The first day of an inquest at Bolton Coroner’s Court into rueben’s death in 2011 has heard that he ‘is likely to have survived’ if that had happened – but when the caesarean was finally carried out 105 minutes later, he was stillborn.
In 2016, bosses at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust admitted responsibility and offered ‘unreserved apologies’ after it emerged that rueben could have lived if doctors had delivered him sooner. Miss Monks and her partner Peter Winrow were awarded £40,000. recalling that day in November 2011, Miss Monks, now 33, said: ‘There was no panic or urgency. The consultant told me she was going for her dinner and then she would deliver him. I was crying, pleading for someone to listen. My baby wasn’t moving and I felt it was an emergency.’
When rueben was finally delivered he was unresponsive. Doctors battled in vain to revive him. In 2016, Miss Monks said: ‘I was hysterical; screaming and pleading with rueben to breathe.
‘Peter and I were taken into a side room and left to wait. We were given no reason for rueben’s death, no explanation. They said it was “just one of those things”. And so I blamed myself. I thought my body had let him down – my body had killed him.’
Independent expert witness Professor Janesh Gupta, of Birmingham Women’s Hospital, told the inquest that Miss Monks should have been taken for an immediate ‘category one’ caesarean as a result of the pathological trace. This meant rueben would have been delivered within 30 minutes but, instead, doctors opted for a ‘category two’, which has to be performed with 70 minutes.
The delivery, however, did not take place for another 105 minutes. Professor Gupta told the hearing: ‘It is likely that rueben would have survived if delivery had taken place within 30 minutes of the abnormal trace being found.’
After the truth about what happened to rueben was finally revealed, Miss Monks urged any mother-to-be who fears there is a problem with their baby to ‘scream from the rooftops’, ask questions and insist on answers.
The inquest continues.