Telford hospital midwife ‘failed to check poorly baby’
A baby’s survival chances were already limited by the last time a midwife failed to check his heart rate, a tribunal has heard.
Three midwives from the Shrewsbury and Telford Trust – Kerry Davies, Laura Jones, and Hayley Lacey – are facing allegations of misconduct over care given to an expectant mother and her son, Baby K.
Davies allegedly failed to check the unborn baby’s heart rate at 8.05pm on August 19, 2015, at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford – the last opportunity before he was transferred to an intensive care unit.
Baby K was born 48 minutes later at 8.53pm.
He was immediately given a ventilation mask and his heart rate went up to more than 100 beats per minute.
Baby K died four days later, having been unable to breathe on his own.
Professor Benjamin Stenson, the lead neo-natologist in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, told the panel: “Let’s say there was an abnormality at 8.05pm.
"That kind of foetal heart rate abnormality is usually observed for a period (before acted on).
“But if you allow from a period from 8.05pm and then make a decision to deliver and then deliver, if it was only then an opportunity would have been limited.”
Baby K's mother was asked how she felt about the standard of care given to her son.
She replied: “I feel let down, I feel that perhaps had the care been better he could be alive today.”
Jones admits recording the woman’s heartbeat as having elevated for the second time at 3.30pm and failing to transfer her to the consultant-led unit. The mother was transferred to the unit at 8.20pm.
Jones and Lacey are charged with dishonestly recording Baby K's heartbeat, amending the record later so that it appeared that they had recorded it when they had not.
Both Jones and Davies admit failing to call a porter to assist in the transfer of the mother to the consultant-led unit.
Davies admits not recording the foetal heart rate at 8.05pm but denies this led to the loss of chance of survival for the baby.
Lacey and Jones each deny being responsible for the care of Patient A at 6.05pm and 6.20pm when they are said to have failed to have recorded the foetal heartbeat.
