Mum wins settlement from NHS over newborn's care

Samantha's daughter Piper was born in Broomfield Hospital in September 2021

A mum has won a settlement against an NHS trust after she said medical staff failed to listen to her concerns and diagnose her newborn's medical condition.

Samantha, 43, from Harwich, Essex, said her daughter Piper has esophageal atresia and tracheo-oesophageal fistula, a condition where the esophagus does not form properly preventing food from reaching the stomach.

After Piper's birth she said she told hospital staff her daughter was not swallowing milk and said: "It felt like I was screaming from the rooftops. I just wasn't being listened to."

The Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust admitted to failing to care for Piper properly and accepted it made several breaches of duty.

Piper was born at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex, in September 2021 and was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge for life-saving surgery two days later.

Piper's condition, known as TOF, also means she has a gap between the esophagus and trachea.

Piper is now three-years-old and her mum says she is doing well and loves to eat

"Piper was not seen by a paediatrician quickly enough, she was being fed throughout her first day even though it made her turn blue and choke and she was only rushed to Addenbrooke's after hours and hours of suffering," Samantha said.

She added Piper has been left with a four-inch scar because she had to have her chest drained after medics continued to feed her not realising that the milk and stomach acid were going into her lungs.

"One easy scan would have picked [the condition] up and meant Piper would have been born in a specialist unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital rather than at my local hospital, which failed to take the proper action," she said.

Samantha was 39 when she had her baby and said she was automatically put in the "high-risk category" because of her age.

But she said the trauma she went through with her daughter could have been avoided if medical staff had listened to her.

At a 20-week scan Samantha was told by a midwife she had polyhydramnios, which is a build-up of amniotic fluid around the baby.

"I had a very distinct feeling that it was thought [by medical staff] I was being paranoid - that this was just a build up of mucus," she added.

"If sonographers knew what they were looking for, perhaps she could have been born in the right place, she would have had a tube inserted at birth.

"We needed have gone through that trauma of trying to feed a baby and then choking again and again.

"Why are we putting babies through that and mums," she said.

Piper, who is now three, was born with esophageal atresia and tracheo-oesophageal fistula

Piper, now aged three, loves eating food now and has been doing really well, she said.

Yet Piper's condition is life-long and she will receive care from the surgical team at Addenbrooke's Hospital until she is 16, her mother said.

"I cannot tell you how many times I have been sat in front of a GP trying to explain her condition and sort of being disregarded and it's been happening to parents of TOF babies and children all over the UK."

Samantha believed there was a lack of knowledge of the condition amongst healthcare professionals and recalled how once a GP Googled the condition during a consultation.

"For so many parents that fight is not over - or it is just begun.

"I don't think that NHS strategy of let's wait and see will ever change, but if we can get the conversation going - I am very happy to talk about Piper."

Denise Townsend, the deputy chief nurse for Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We sincerely apologise that the level of care received by Piper was not to the standard she and her family should have expected."