A mother has been given £25,000 in compensation after midwives made a number of errors which resulted in her baby girl being stillborn.
Hull and East Yorkshire hospitals Trust admitted the baby would have been healthy had gross errors not been made during the woman’s pregnancy and labour.
The 21-year-old woman, who has asked not to be named, was sent home several times from Hull Women and Children’s hospital during her pregnancy, including times when she reported reduced movements from the aby and a haemorrhage.
She went into spontaneous labour the day after her July 2011 due date but midwives mistakenly monitored the woman’s heart rate instead of the baby’s. By the time they finally realised their mistake, the unborn baby had died.
The woman, from Hull, said she will never get over what has happened.
“One of the midwives kept saying to me that I’d be a mum in the next few hours,” she recalled.
“Concerns were only raised when a new duty midwife arrived for a shift change.
“I remember them checking my baby’s heartbeat and suddenly turning the screen the other way.
“Then they told me my baby had died.”
Lawyers acting on her behalf claimed the hospital trust was responsible for the death of the baby due to a number of failures, with medical experts concluding that she would have been born “in good condition” if the mother had been induced in the three days after going to hospital with the haemorrhage on 5th July, instead of being sent home.
That day, she was examined at the hospital and a healthy heartbeat was recorded. This was the evidence that led experts to conclude that the baby would have been born healthy had she had been induced on 8th July.
The woman was 18-years-old at the time and believed her age played a part in her concerns being repeatedly ignored.
“I put my trust in them but I received an appalling level of care and I felt like I was treated like a silly little teenager,” she said.
“You can’t put a price on the loss of a baby.
“Taking legal action was not about the money, it was about the hospital accepting they should have done more.
“It means I can stop blaming myself, as I have done all this time. I really thought it was my fault.
“Now, I have some answers and some closure.”
A Hull and East Yorkshire hospitals NHS Trust spokesman said: “We understand this must have been a distressing time for this lady and apologise for the distress caused.
“With the case now settled, we hope she is able to move on from this experience and we will ensure that, where appropriate, all relevant learning is shared within the trust.”