A mother's experience of Oxford University Hospitals Maternity Services in 2017:
My daughter was born 5 weeks early and I was suffering from period pain like cramps and bad back so rang the hospital and they said to take paracetamol and ring back in an hour to let them know how the pain was. Obviously it was getting worse so rang them back and they said to come in.
So I went to the JR and waited hour and a half to be seen ( I was told I looked grey and very unwell and was still just left to one side, I could barely stand) and when I was seen, I was on the monitor for 30mins and then surgeon came in and said the baby needs to come out. However they weren’t clearly in much of a rush because the midwife was pushing for this to happen as the doctors just wanted to originally wait even though her heart beat kept dropping). I was then taken to a room and put to sleep, but they had no one to do the c section so they had to call someone to get them to come in. Bear in mind I was just left in a room Asleep waiting for ages.
Unfortunately she was born dead and it took 20 mins to bring her back to life but because she was starved of oxygen she was brain damaged. My placenta basically abrupted inside me so from the time I felt the pain to when they got her it was a matter of timing. The longer it took the more of a chance she wouldn't have made it.
The hospital wasted nearly 3 hours with me and that put her life at risk basically.
So she was in ICU for 2 weeks and they said she will die so we had to take her off the ventilator. We wasn't ready for ages to say those words as they said we had to tell them when to do it. The day we took her off was the day she kept breathing and she had to be tube fed every 3 hours. I had doctors and health visitors come round every day to monitor.
But obviously one day she was struggling to breathe so they called people to bring oxygen and then an ambulance and we was told to just hold her until she died but I refused to a let her die in the house and not get a second opinion considering we was told she wouldn't cry or open her eyes and she did.
We took her to hospital in the ambulance and she stayed in overnight and at about 3.35, I was cuddling her and she took her last breath 😓 will never forget that day. The nurses knew the signs of an abruption but I was just shrugged off and put to one side and not taken seriously from when I called them to when she was delivered.
I had an investigation done and they have admitted fault but obviously no apology from anyone. No remorse from anyone. It’s just a normal day for them and they aren’t the ones who have to live without a child for the rest of their lives. If only they had done their job properly and straight away and not argued about it and doctors overruling midwives, then maybe my daughter would still be alive and well. I will never forgive the JR for what they have put myself and my family through.