AN east London NHS trust says it is “extremely sorry” after paying £28million to the family of a girl left brain-damaged at birth reports the Local Democracy Reporter.
The girl, who is now six and cannot be legally identified, suffered a loss of oxygen and blood-flow to her brain as she was born at Queen’s Hospital in Romford in 2019, which left her severely disabled.
She will need lifelong care as well as constant supervision, and suffers from epilepsy, seizures, declining mobility and other cognitive impairments.
Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust (BHRUT) – which oversees Queen’s Hospital – acknowledged that staff failed to monitor her heart rate while her mother was in labour or ask an obstetrician – medical doctors who specialise in pregnancy – to review the case, the Guardian reported last week.
These moves could have prevented the girl becoming disabled.
Nic Kane, the chief nurse at BHRUT, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We’re extremely sorry the care this child and their family experienced was not good enough.
“We’d like to reassure them, and all our expectant mothers, that since this birth in 2019, we’ve learned lessons, made significant changes and our maternity department has been rated good by the [Care Quality Commission, which assesses the quality of healthcare].”
The trust was ordered by the High Court to pay the family a lump sum of £8m, followed by an annual sum of £225,000 for ten years, and £335,000 in the years thereafter.
The girl’s mother, who likewise cannot be named for legal reasons, said her daughter was “thriving and doing well”.
“But it’s impossible for me to forget that I was robbed of the precious experience of most mothers giving birth by the horror of what happened to us,” she added, in a report by the Guardian.
Kane went on to say the improvements BHRUT had made in the past seven years included hiring more obstetric and midwifery staff to ensure women were reviewed and concerns escalated quicker, alongside more robust training on monitoring the baby’s heart rate and mother’s contractions.
“We are part of a national programme, run by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which focuses on reducing the risk of avoidable harm in childbirth,” the chief nurse added.
