From skull fractures to deadly infections ignored – the agonising horror of the NHS maternity scandal laid bare

HEARTBROKEN parents have relived the tragic day their babies died, due to catastrophic mistakes made by the medics delivering them.

They have told their harrowing tales of ignored deadly infections and skull fractures, after a report laid bare the worst maternity scandal in NHS history.

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It confirmed over 200 babies and nine mums died needlessly while in the care of a Midland’s trust.

Bereft mums and dads doggedly pushed to have their cases properly investigated for years, after their horrific experiences.

Today, the damning Ockenden Report was released – detailing nearly two decades worth of errors and failures in care.

Top midwife Donna Ockenden today lifted the lid on a litany of devastating errors at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.

It found maternity units were short-staffed for years and bosses refused to take responsibility for mistakes.

Alongside the tragic deaths, 94 babies suffered life-changing brain injuries as a result of “catastrophic” care.

Multiple accounts of missed killer infections, skull fractures from heavy-handed forceps deliveries and a lack of basic monitoring were recorded.

Hundreds of parents came forward to tell their stories, with staff at the trust reporting concerns.

Police have launched an investigation, and are currently probing 600 cases.

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Among the group of parents reflecting on their efforts to get to this hard-won point are Rhiannon Davies and Richard Stanton.

Their daughter, Kate, died hours after her birth in March 2009 in her father’s arms.

Ms Davies had told doctors she had stopped moving as much days before she gave birth, but she was still allowed to deliver Kate in a remote unit with no medical care nearby.

She said: “All we ever wanted was to understand why Kate died. It was as simple as that.

“It was so chaotic on the day of her birth – the day of her death – we just needed answers.

“I began to ask questions but we were met with such hostility and bold lies that really forced us to question what was going on, so it became a fight.

Ms Davies had been joined by the very start of the campaign by Kayleigh Griffiths, who lost her daughter, Pippa, after one day.

The pair embraced this morning as the report was published, weeping.

Midwives failed to notice little Pippa had Group B Strep after she was born in 2016, even after her mum told them she was worried.

Kayleigh said of the report: “This is 200-odd pages of harmed families. That’s a disgrace that they haven’t learned when we’ve told them what the issues were.

“So it’s really important, and it’s really important that maternity services up and down the country read this and listen to what families have gone through and the impact that’s had on people’s lives.

“It’s really difficult to comprehend.

“We visited Pippa this morning before we came and we said, ‘This is what we’ve done for her.’

“It’s just heart-breaking. There’s so many stories, so many families here today.”

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“It’s bittersweet. It’s an accomplishment, but it didn’t need to happen,” her husband Colin, added.

“It shouldn’t have happened in the first place.”

In some cases, women were blamed for losing their babies, while others had their concerns and complaints dismissed, compounding their grief at losing a child.

Target numbers for “natural” vaginal births meant women were denied or had delayed C-sections, increasing risks, the report found.

Tory MP Jeremy Hunt, who in 2017 ordered the Ockenden inquiry into mother and baby deaths at Shrewsbury when he was health secretary, said the numbers were “worse” than he could have imagined at the start of the process.

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One victim of error was Hayley Matthews’ son, Jack Burns.

He was 11 hours old when he died in 2015, after staff again failed to spot he had Group B Strep.

Hayley had been in labour for 36 hours and had repeatedly asked for a Caesarean section.

She : “They need to listen to the mothers.

“You tell them that something’s not right and they don’t listen, they think they know best, but they don’t always.”

Another grieving mum, Katie Wilkins, previously told The Sun about the harrowing day her daughter died.

Katie Wilkins, Dave Jackson

She had been waiting to be induced for three days and was two weeks overdue.

Katie, from Newtown, Powys, Wales says hospital staff failed to check on her or monitor the baby’s heart for at least 15 hours.

A doctor then broke the devastating news a scan had revealed little Maddison’s heart wasn’t beating, but she still had to deliver her.

Katie’s mum, Dawn Rowlands, a senior care practitioner, said: “They didn’t take into consideration how many weeks Katie was over.

“They weren’t monitoring the heartbeat nowhere near enough times as they should be. I was constantly chasing them to find somebody.

“I felt they let her down completely with the whole care from start to finish.”

Health Secretary Sajid Javid apologised to bereaved families when he spoke in the Commons this afternoon.

He said: “The report clearly shows that you were failed by a service that was there to help you and your loved ones bring life into this world.”

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Another parent who hailed the results of the inquiry is Shropshire mum Charlotte Cheshire, 44.

Her son was left with severe health problems because medics were too slow to treat a bacterial infection.

The reverend from Newport, Shropshire, says her son Adam, now 11, looked unwell after his birth in 2011 but her concerns were dismissed by staff at the trust.

When it was finally discovered that he had Group B Strep infection, he was rushed to intensive care where he stayed for almost a month.

She said: “What I’m ultimately hoping is that all of the families get some answers.

“I don’t want any other family to have to go through what we’ve gone through.”

Julie Rowlings’ daughter Olivia died after 23 hours of labour following a consultant’s use of forceps.

She said: “If it gets people to question their care and to trust their instincts then it’s worth it.

“But I can’t see how this trust can ever get away with this again, because I do think families will fight them now.

“They maybe wouldn’t have before, but they will now.

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“It’s absolutely heart-breaking, but it’s only the ones that we know about.

“There are families who didn’t have the strength to come forward, maybe felt too much time had passed, or felt they just couldn’t open those wounds up again.

“For every family out there, every family that’s come forward, this is for them.

“Justice is coming. For every baby, justice is coming.”