Stillborn baby's parents receive £2.8m from Nottingham hospital trust

Sarah Hawkins's daughter was delivered stillborn in 2016

A couple whose child died in the womb after mistakes by maternity staff have received a £2.8m settlement.

Sarah Hawkins was in labour for six days before Harriet was stillborn at Nottingham City Hospital in April 2016.

It is believed to be the largest payout for a stillbirth clinical negligence case.

A Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust spokesperson said it had now introduced enhanced training on foetal monitoring.

Mrs Hawkins was nearly 41 weeks' pregnant when Harriet was delivered, almost nine hours after dying.

Hospital bosses initially found "no obvious fault" and the couple were told their child had died of an infection.

Refusing to accept this the parents launched their own investigation.

An external inquiry identified 13 failings in care.

Monitoring delays

A Root Cause Analysis Investigation Report published in 2018 concluded the death was "almost certainly preventable".

The report said errors included a delay in applying appropriate foetal monitoring, the important omission of information on an antenatal advice sheet and a failure to follow the Risk Management Policy for maternity.

It also found failures to record or pass on information correctly, failure to follow correct guidelines and delays in administering the correct treatment.

At the time, both parents both worked for Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS trust but due to the trauma of Harriet's death, neither felt able to return.

Following the report's publication, the hospital trust apologised and said major changes would be made.

Jack Hawkins wants an inquiry into the maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals

Mrs Hawkins said: "I couldn't grieve when [the trust] chose to say Harriet's death was caused by an infection, rather than their own failures.

"We had to keep Harriet's body in the mortuary for two years so we could keep her as 'evidence'.

"Time after time families are contacting us, and every single time I get contacted my heart sinks."

Mr Hawkins said: "We have had to fight to be heard. We are, at long last, heard.

"As too are many other families, yet sadly because there has been no proper accountability for such a long time now, there are many more yet to come forwards."

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has apologised to Mr and Mrs Hawkins for its failings

A spokesperson for NUH said: "We would like to reiterate our sincere apologies to Mr and Mrs Hawkins for failures in the care around the delivery of baby Harriet.

"Our Maternity Improvement Programme has introduced a number of improvements including better training and monitoring with renewed focus on the recruitment and retention of midwives and maternity teams to ensure that we offer the best services possible to every family in our care."

Trust criticised

An investigation by Channel 4 News and the Independent earlier this year reported 46 babies had suffered brain damage and 19 were stillborn in Nottingham since 2010.

The BBC found there have been at least seven preventable deaths of babies between 2015 and 2020.

Both maternity services run by NUH have been rated as inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Through a freedom of information request, BBC News learned there have been 34 maternity investigations following adverse incidents at NUH since 2018.

Janet Baker, from Switalskis Solicitors, which represented Mr and Mrs Hawkins, said: "£2.8m is the highest damages award in a stillbirth case, with legal fees for both sides the total cost to the NHS is likely to be over £3.5m.

"I believe that this is a cost which was unnecessary and could have been avoided if NUH had acknowledged responsibility for Harriet's death straight away and had been open with Sarah and Jack."