Report into hundreds of babies left dead or brain-damaged in NHS maternity unit to be published
A major report will today reveal the true scale of failings at a hospital trust where hundreds of babies died or were left brain damaged.
The Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust has been under investigation for failings in maternity care.
A culture at the Trust that favoured natural births as well as repeated failure to monitor babies properly or learn from mistakes are all expected to be blamed for what is already recognised to be the worst maternity scandal in the history of the NHS.
‘I asked on numerous occasions for a caesarean. They said no’
From the window of her home in Telford Hayley Matthews can see the playground where she imagined she would play with her son. Jack Burn was born in 2015. His mother knew he was going to be big and had repeatedly asked for a caesarean section.
“I know if I’d had a caesarean he would have been at this park today,” she says.
“I asked on numerous occasions for a caesarean. They said no.”
During delivery Jack’s shoulder got stuck. By the time he was born he’d had no heartbeat for 15 minutes. Doctors were able to resuscitate him but he was rushed to intensive care.
“He wasn’t responding to treatment,” Hayley says. “They said I’d have to let him go because there’s nothing they can do.”
Eleven hours later Jack passed away.
It was only as time went by that Hayley realised his death was part of a pattern at the Trust.
“You think it’s just your child it’s happened to and then you hear of another 10, another 20 and now it’s gone to over 1,000. “There are so many people who have suffered”.
Hundreds of families contacted the inquiry team
Jack’s death was one of 23 cases of concern when independent midwife Donna Ockenden was asked to investigate the Trust in 2017.
Since then her inquiry team has been contacted by hundreds more families. At least 1400 cases have been examined in her report, including deaths of babies and mothers and avoidable harm that left babies permanently disabled.
Most of the incidents in the report happened between 2000 and 2019.
The Trust has said it takes full responsibility for the failings in the standards of care and has apologised.
But an earlier reported highlighted a lack of compassion among staff, who blamed mothers when their babies died.
‘It was disgusting how we were treated’
“I got told it was my fault and that I must have been smoking which wasn’t true,” says Steph Hotchkiss, whose daughter Sophiya died at the Trust in 2014.
“It was disgusting how we were treated, basically blamed for our own daughter’s death.”
In fact Steph had gone to the hospital in severe pain and told midwives she’d had a placental abruption in a previous pregnancy. She was left waiting for 45 minutes. Even then, initially a midwife told her she wasn’t experiencing another abruption, before finally realising she was.
“The cause of her death was the lack of oxygen. That wouldn’t have happened if they’d have come to me as soon as I’d arrived.
“No one should have to leave that hospital without their baby, knowing it was avoidable. The pain is indescribable.”
Her case and several others are being investigated by the police. The West Mercia force announced it was carrying out a criminal investigation into deaths at the Trust in 2020.
Families say report must be watershed moment
The bereaved families who have fought hard to get answers say this report must be a watershed moment for maternity care across the country.
The parents of Kate Stanton Davies have campaigned tirelessly to uncover the scandal at the Trust since her death in 2009.
He mother, Rhiannon Davies said: “This report must really shine a light on what has gone on, why it has gone on and how it has been enabled.
“This fight has been for Kate and for every other family, so no one ever has to go through what we have to live with.”
