Parents’ ‘raw grief’ in fight for answers

DEVASTATED Greenock parents have spoken about the suffering they have edured during their seven-year fight for answers following the death of their infant baby girl.

Mum Theresa and dad Matthew say they hope an upcoming fatal accident inquiry will finally give them the closure they need after losing daughter Sophia at only 11 days old.

Little Sophia died in April 2017 after she was born with breathing difficulties and transferred to Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Children.

But it was in the hospital she picked up a rare infection and then contracted sepsis, which proved fatal.

Since then Theresa and Matthew have been met with a wall of silence from health chiefs and had gagging orders imposed, preventing them from speaking publicly.

They have now hit out at the ‘inhumane’ way they have been treated which has trapped them in raw grief.

Earlier this year the Crown Office announced that due to ‘significant concern’ a fatal accident inquiry into baby Sophia’s death would take place and is scheduled for May.

Theresa said: “We have been trapped in raw grief for seven years. It’s inhumane. It has ripped our world apart.

“Nothing will ever be the same again. Sophia fought so hard to survive.”

The family will mourn Sophia on Easter Sunday, which would have been her seventh birthday.

Theresa, speaking to the Daily Record newspaper, added: “Up

until this point the health board have stonewalled us every step of the way. We have hit every brick wall they have thrown at us, absorbed every low blow and jumped every hurdle, all designed to wear us down.

“It has been merciless and a very long road. We’ve asked so many times why are we still grieving so hard and the answer is simply how much we love her.

“But also the first stage of grief is acceptance. How can we accept what we don’t know?”

Sophia was born with breathing problems on March 31 2017 and hours after her birth she was transferred from the RAH in Paisley to the Royal Children’s Hospital.

But after initially responding well to treatment in the ICU her condition rapidly deteriorated.

Within hours little Sophia died in her mother’s arms, with half her body turned black.

In the days that followed the family questioned the reasons for Sophia’s death with hospital chiefs and asked for a post mortem.

After several months, Theresa said, they were called to meet with the health board and shown the post mortem, which concluded Sophia had contracted a rare infection.

As they began to question how Sophia had contracted the infection, reports of other infections started to emerge.

Since then Theresa and Matthew have called for a fatal accident inquiry into their daughter’s death.

In that time the couple have had legal constraints imposed which stopped them from talking publicly about their fight.

They did, though, give evidence to the public inquiry into issues at the Queen Elizabeth and Royal Children’s Hospital, although much of that was in private.

In January this year the Crown Office announced that a FAI would take place and last week a date for the first hearing was set for May 7.

An NHSGGC spokesman said: “We would once again extend our deepest condolences to the family of Sophia. We will cooperate fully with the inquiry and implement the findings.”