Dudley hospital admits errors prior to woman losing baby

Jessica and Charlie Doman Lees have called for 'accountability' over their daughter's death

A hospital trust has admitted a series of procedural errors during the care of a pregnant woman who lost her baby.

Bereaved Jessica Doman Lees said her "world crumbled" when baby Pippa died at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley in May.

Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust said it offered the family its deepest condolences and continued to work with them to learn from the "tragic" death.

Pippa's parents have lodged a formal complaint over events.

They have also called for an inquiry.

Mrs Doman Lees was admitted to hospital on 4 May at 30 weeks pregnant after raising concerns five times about reduced foetal movements in her pregnancy, she said.

Her baby was found to have a low heartrate and despite steps to increase it, she explained, it continued to drop.

According to Mrs Doman Lees, a doctor was then called and when she said she wanted an elective caesarean-section to deliver her baby, he told her she was "low risk and didn't need to have surgery".

But when a medical decision was then made for a caesarean and she was taken to theatre, the procedure was again refused, she said, despite calls from doctors and midwives to "act quickly" for delivery.

It was only when a consultant ordered a caesarean 25 minutes later that the procedure was agreed, she explained.

Mrs Doman Lees said her world had crumbled

Her husband, Charlie Doman Lees, said he was left in a corridor while his wife was taken for surgery and "wasn't being told anything".

He was later taken to a recovery room and told his daughter had died. She was stillborn.

"They then tried to push me to tell Jess she had died as quickly as possible," he said. "Which, for me, trying to process what had happened and then have that sort-of weight on your shoulders to... tell her... it was unthinkable."

Mrs Doman Lees said: "My world just crumbled in that moment when Charlie told me our daughter had died. Nothing has been the same since that moment."

Mrs Doman Lees said her daughter's death was '100% avoidable'

One of the "biggest failings", she said, was the delay in performing the caesarean section.

She expressed the view her daughter's death was "100% avoidable" and they had been "failed as a family".

A report by the trust into Pippa's death highlighted a number of care and service delivery problems, including a delay over the escalation of the birth to senior staff, missed opportunities to discuss wellbeing with Mrs Doman Lees and the delay in performing the caesarean section.

Solicitors Irwin Mitchell are in the early stages of acting on behalf of the family.

Russells Hall Hospital is operated by Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust

Diane Wake, chief executive of the trust, said it offered its "deepest condolences" to the family.

"We are very grateful to the family who have been extremely brave and supportive while we fully investigate the circumstances of Pippa's death in order to learn lessons and make any necessary improvements to local maternity services," she said."We are continuing to work closely with them as we learn from this tragic event."