Cardiff Hospital Admits Liability for Death Of Baby Boy
13/10/2009
A substantial six-figure sum has been awarded to a Cardiff woman as part of a medical negligence claim following the death of a baby boy at a Cardiff hospital.
Midwives at the University Hospital of Wales failed to realise that Johanne Rees’s baby was in distress despite being highlighted as a high risk pregnancy, in need of special care. One doctor even tried to claim that Mrs. Rees was not even in labour, but just needed the toilet.
Although Cardiff & Vale NHS Trust have now admitted liability for their medical negligence, Mrs. Rees and her partner Krishna Govekar have spoken out about their devastation of losing their son, who they believe was their last chance to start a family.
Their solicitor, Guy Forster, a medical negligence expert with national law firm, Irwin Mitchell, is concerned that the Trust initially refused to admit any wrongdoing. It was only as a result of legal action that the Trust finally admitted errors had been made and Mr. Forster is now calling for the hospital to prove that it has learnt from its mistakes.
Johanne was 32 weeks into her pregnancy when she experienced severe abdominal pains in the early hours of the morning. Ms. Rees, then 44, had been cared for by the hospital’s Fetal Medicine Unit for the duration of her pregnancy after her waters broke early at just 18 weeks.
Midwives failed to spot that her baby was in distress, despite CTG heart readings that showed this clearly. Johanne’s labour was not monitored properly and it was more than two hours before they realised something was wrong.
Johanne says: “I just couldn’t understand why they weren’t doing anything to help me and my baby. At my last antenatal visit I was told my baby was breech and I would need a caesarean section. It was a ‘no brainer’ – I knew my baby needed to be delivered urgently.
“I was screaming in agony and begging the midwives to get my baby out but they just left me. I couldn’t believe it when a doctor arrived and said I wasn’t ready to deliver but had probably eaten something that had disagreed with me and to try going to the toilet instead!”
It wasn’t until a second doctor assessed Johanne over an hour and a half later that medical staff made the decision to perform an emergency caesarean. Baby boy Arun was born at 03:42 on the 19th November, 2005 and was immediately taken to the Special Care Baby Unit to be monitored.
Arun’s father, Krishna, rushed back from his home in Goa to be with Johanne as soon as he learned that she had gone into labour. Sadly, when he arrived he was told the devastating news that Arun was essentially brain dead and was being kept alive on a life support machine.
The couple made the heartbreaking decision to switch off ten day old baby Arun’s life support on 29th November 2005.
Ms. Rees, a property developer met restaurant owner, Krishna, after a holiday romance in Goa in 1998. She said: “Arun was a precious, much wanted baby. Krishna and I both desperately wanted to start a family together and the plan had always been for me to move out to Goa so that we could be married.
“After the upset of an earlier miscarriage, we were both so thrilled when I became pregnant again. Losing Arun has completely devastated us both and it’s difficult to come to terms with his loss even now.”
Guy Forster, a medical negligence claims expert with Irwin Mitchell Solicitors who represented the couple during the case, explained: “Although baby Arun was premature he was well developed and experts have confirmed that in all likelihood he would have survived had the staff taken appropriate action.
“When a baby becomes distressed during labour, every minute is vital and any delay can be potentially fatal. Sadly, the obstetric staff took more than two hours to decide that a caesarean section was needed and by the time baby Arun was born he had been starved of oxygen and had suffered irreversible brain damage.
“Immediately following the tragedy, Johanne made a complaint to the Trust but they failed to acknowledge that her labour had not been properly managed. The Coroner initially decided that an inquest was unnecessary but, after we persuaded the Coroner to overturn this decision, the Trust gave evidence insisting all care was appropriate.
“It is only as a result of taking legal action that the Trust has finally admitted that Arun should have been delivered earlier and that, had that occurred, he would have survived. Johanne and Krishna have received no apology for a tragedy which was totally avoidable and this is something we are now demanding from the Trust. We have also had no reassurance that hospital procedures have changed or that the staff concerned have been retrained. For Johanne and Krishna this case has never been about the money but about ensuring that lessons have been learned, as they do not want any other couple to go through the tragedy they have experienced.”
Johanne added: “The last four years have been a relentless battle to gain answers. Arun’s death has taken its toll on us both. It has affected our health, our ability to work and at times it threatened to break up our relationship completely.
“We can only hope that we can now move forward with our lives. We are planning to get married next month, here in Wales, before moving back to Goa to start a new life together.”
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