Auto Amazon Links: No products found.
Sarah and Jack Hawkins were among the earliest to voice serious concerns about the quality of care at the trust following the stillbirth of their daughter Harriet at City Hospital in April 2016. Initially, a hospital review concluded there was “no obvious fault” and attributed Harriet’s death to an infection. However, Sarah and Jack, both employees of the trust, challenged this conclusion and requested an independent investigation.
The external review, released in January 2019, revealed numerous deficiencies and determined that Harriet’s death was “almost certainly preventable.” Reflecting on the tragedy, Jack, then a hospital consultant, expressed frustration at the high number of avoidable baby deaths in the country, emphasizing the devastating impact on families: “How on earth have we allowed it that there are 1,000 avoidable baby deaths in this country every year and, in a particular place, there are this many schools’ worth of children missing or damaged beyond belief, and dead mums and damaged mums? How have we got here?”
Sarah, who worked as a senior physiotherapist, shared how the experience profoundly affected every aspect of their lives. “It’s massive, because we worked there as well. We couldn’t go back to our careers, our jobs, everything. Every single aspect of life was changed,” she said. Sarah added that many families in Nottingham simply seek justice and recognition for the harm that was caused: “I know a lot of Nottingham families just want some form of justice, to clear their children’s name, to know that the harm that was caused wasn’t their fault.” The couple also revealed that Harriet’s body had deteriorated so severely under the trust’s care that it had to be triple-bagged for the funeral. Their legal claim was settled out of court for £2.8 million, which is thought to be the largest payout ever in a stillbirth clinical negligence case.
Another family affected by the trust’s failures is Gary and Sarah Andrews, whose daughter Wynter died just 23 minutes after her birth in 2019. NUH faced an £800,000 fine in January 2023 after admitting failings in the care provided to both Wynter and Sarah. Gary, 38, highlighted the need for change following the report on their case: “The report being published today needs to serve as a wake-up call to the NHS locally and nationally, that what’s gone on before cannot be allowed to continue.” The Andrews have a four-year-old son named Bowie. Sarah, 41, spoke about the ongoing emotional difficulty of coping with the loss: “I think, personally, it’s got harder because we watch Bowie grow up and realise all the milestones we’re missing with Wynter and that’s heart-breaking.” She also stressed the frustration of having to fight for recognition and accountability: “We should have never had to fight in the first place and actually we should not be doing it now. We shouldn’t have to be doing this. There should be accountability, and it shouldn’t be on families to have to fight to be heard and believed.
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
Auto Amazon Links: No products found.