How errors cost life of my daughter
A MOTHER whose baby died after her heartbeat was mistaken for her daughter’s says she would still be alive if medics had learned from earlier mistakes.
Emily Barley, 34, said she was dismissed as ‘a dramatic firsttime mum’ when she raised concerns about her labour.
Staff at Barnsley Hospital ‘ignored alarm bells’ and refused to send her for a caesarean.
Her daughter Beatrice died during labour last May with subsequent inquiries revealing she was one of 13 maternity investigations at the trust since 2019.
Miss Barley said her ‘world had been destroyed’ by mistakes similar to those in previous tragedies at the hospital. Monitoring had shown up decelerations in Beatrice’s heartbeat, a sign the baby could have been in trouble.
And tests found meconium in the amniotic fluid, another pointer that a baby is in distress. Staff then mixed up the heartbeats.
‘They didn’t act when monitoring showed when Beatrice was in trouble. If they had, I would still have my beautiful daughter today,’ said Miss Barley.
Dr Richard Jenkins, Barnsley Hospital’s chief executive, said it recognised the tragic event should not have happened and had apologised to Miss Barley.