Parents release heartbreaking image of lifeless daughter after hospital admits errors
This is the heartbreaking moment the parents of a newborn baby tenderly held their daughter, who died after she was deprived of oxygen at birth.
Brogan Smith, 23, and Jamie Scrimshaw, 26, were left devastated after medics failed to spot tell-tale complications during the birth of tragic Lilah.
The baby died a few hours after arriving into the world at Bassetlaw District General Hospital, in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, on 21 January, 2018.
Lilah had been urgently whisked away by medical staff following a long and complicated delivery 13 days past the due date.
She died just seconds after doctors decided to stop performing CPR and switched off her life support in a specialist baby care unit.
Brogan and Jamie spent three days at the hospital with Lilah and described her as the "most precious, most beautiful thing they had ever laid eyes on".
Heart-wrenching images show the anguished couple tenderly holding the child as Jamie clutches Lilah's hand.
They later instructed medical negligence lawyers to investigate their case, which found Lilah's death had been preventable.
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Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has now admitted its blunders led to her death.
It agreed there were errors by staff in the care they provided including a failure to detect oxygen deprivation during labour and a failure to hasten the delivery.
The family are now continuing to pursue their negligence case against the hospital and have now said lessons must be learned by Lilah's death.
Brogan, from Worksop, said: “There are no words to describe what it is like to lose a baby.
“Jamie and I went into hospital so full of joy, but within just a few hours of Lilah’s birth we were told she was not going to survive.
“That’s the worst news any parents could ever hear.
“After the birth I was only able to hold Lilah for a moment.
“She was the most precious, most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on in my entire life.”
An inquest in November 2018 revealed Lilah had died shortly after delivery as a consequence of a high volume of meconium, the first bowel movement of a newborn infant, being passed and inhaled into her lungs due to her distress during labour.
The trust wrote to the family’s solicitor at at Simpson Millar identifying numerous missed opportunities to intervene and delays in observations.
These included a “failure to detect baby’s hypoxia during labour”, a “failure to expedite the delivery” and a failure to “reduce or stop Syntocinin in the presence of an abnormal CTG”.
Lilah’s family say they are aware steps have been taken by the trust to learn from the errors but now want assurances that lessons learnt will be shared across the NHS.
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David Purdue, director of nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals, said: “On behalf of the Trust, I want to share my sincere apologies and sympathies with both Brogan and Jamie.
"As was highlighted during the inquest, there were clear failings during the care of Lilah and for this we are truly sorry.
“Since this time, the department has seen a change in leadership, as well as undertaking an extensive review of guidelines and procedures in order to ensure colleagues deliver high quality and safe care for patients, mothers, their babies and families.”
