Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust has pleaded guilty to six offences resulting in the deaths of three babies under its care. Adele O’Sullivan, Kahlani Rawson, and Quinn Parker all passed away within 14 weeks of one another in 2021. The Trust recently entered their guilty pleas to the charges, which included failures to provide safe care and treatment to the newborn babies as well as their mothers. The Care Quality Commission (CQC), which is conducting the largest maternity inquiry in the NHS’s history, levelled the charges against the trust.
All three newborns’ mothers experienced a placental abruption. Adele, who was born prematurely in April 2021 following an emergency caesarean, passed away at 26 minutes old. Despite Daniela O’Sullivan’s bleeding and abdominal pains, there was a delay in identifying that Adele was already in labour. Adele’s mother was the subject of numerous missed opportunities. However, an inquest failed to determine whether these missed opportunities led to her baby’s death.
In Kahlani’s case, his mother Ellise Rawson complained of a lack of foetal movement days before she had to undergo an emergency C-section. The Trust acknowledges that monitoring in her case was lacking from the outset, and essential information was not relayed to consultants. Kahlani was born in a “poor condition” in June 2021, requiring resuscitation. On the fourth hospital visit of Quinn’s mother Emmie Studencki, for a major antepartum haemorrhage, she lost about 1.2 L of blood. Quinn required life-saving measures and was eventually delivered by an emergency Caesarean, but he died from his injuries two days later.
Each family shared their stories with the court and spoke of the difficulties that they continue to face. The Trust submitted its “profound apologies and regrets” to the families affected, and the Trust’s CEO, Anthony May, apologised to the families before the hearing. The date for sentencing has been set for Wednesday. The CQC had already fined the Trust £800,000 in 2023 after admitting failings in the treatment of Wynter Andrews, the baby who had died after 23 minutes in 2019. The Trust’s ongoing review is currently being led by Senior Midwife Donna Ockenden
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