Walsall: Mum's flashbacks over hospital stillbirth trauma

Zoe Wall's baby daughter died after she raised concerns to hospital staff

A woman whose baby was delivered stillborn after hospital staff read scans incorrectly says she has flashbacks over the trauma.

Zoe Wall, 35, was a patient at Walsall Manor Hospital when she lost daughter Lily-Ann in utero last summer.

Following an investigation, the hospital trust admitted errors in care and said changes had since been made.

Ms Wall said the experience, including her dead child's arms being broken in delivery, had affected her sleep.

"It was the worst experience of my life," she said. "I didn't honestly think I'd come out of it.

"I still have flashbacks. Different bits keep me awake at night, I'm not sleeping the same as I used to."

The events began after Ms Wall noticed her baby was moving less frequently a few days before a planned caesarean section, due at the hospital in July 2021.

She said she had been categorised as a high-risk pregnancy but staff were reluctant to deliver Lily-Ann earlier than the original C-section plan for 22 July at 38 weeks.

When Ms Wall reported concerns to staff about Lily-Ann's movement on 19 July, she was sent for multiple computer scans to check the baby's heartrate. But, Ms Wall said, there was "a lot of confusion" as to whether her heart was beating or not.

An NHS report found staff had difficulty distinguishing between the baby and mother's heartrates and "misinterpreted warning signs", with flawed readings of an initial scan failing to reveal the baby could be in distress. There was a later failure to realise a second scan was likely detecting only Ms Wall's pulse.

Lily-Ann was confirmed dead in the womb the following morning.

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust has admitted failures with regard to heartrate monitoring.

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Zoe Wall is calling for lessons to be learned from her loss (generic image)

"I just remember the lady saying to me 'I'm sorry'," Ms Wall said of the moment she was told her baby had died.

"I was just lying on the bed and I couldn't say anything. I hadn't got any words to say because I didn't want to believe it, but it was true."

However, she said, it was only after that "the real hell started".

Lily-Ann "was going to be a big girl", Ms Wall said, which she added was part of the reason a C-section had been planned.

However, after Lily-Ann died, Ms Wall said she was told she had to deliver her naturally.

'Broken arms'

"The pain was just intolerable," Ms Wall said. "She got stuck, they tried every which way to pull her and twist her".

The patient said she was then taken for an emergency C-section, explaining she lost four pints of blood and that "it took a lot of effort to get [Lily-Ann] out".

"By the time she came out, they'd broken her arms."

She said of the ordeal: "It's just cruel and unfair."

Ms Wall is now calling for lessons to be learned so other parents avoid her experience.

She says she wants assurances from medics they will listen to pregnant women when they raise concerns and when it comes to how their babies are delivered.

"It's concerning for every woman that's pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant," she said.

"It'd certainly make me question whether I want to have another one because I don't know whether I could trust them again."

'Sincere condolences'

Carla Jones-Charles, director of midwifery, gynaecology and sexual health at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, offered "sincere condolences" to Ms Wall.

After the failures to accurately monitor Lily-Ann's heartrate were identified, she said the trust wanted to "do all we can to avoid such an error".

She said: "We have changed the way we teach foetal heart monitoring and an external review by NHS England around these issues was positive; highlighting our work as good practice for other units."