Attwaters Solicitors

A hospital has agreed to pay a five figure sum in damages and admitted negligence after a young Hoddesdon mother gave birth to a stillborn baby.
Louise Stokes fell pregnant in January 2007 when she was 21, and attended the Princess Alexandra hospital in Harlow.  It was her first child and a planned pregnancy, and she and her partner Charles Plume were looking forward to becoming parents.
Although she had been considered a low risk, tests showed that at 12 weeks Ms Stokes was suffering from gestational diabetes.  The problem was initially controlled by diet but later she began a course of insulin.
By late August she was suffering from high blood pressure and headache, and the midwife thought she was suffering the early stages of pre-eclampsia, a dangerous form of hypertension.  She was admitted to the labour ward but was later discharged.
Two days later Ms Stokes returned to the labour ward and was placed on a CTG monitor.
The registrar told her that the CTG results were ‘reassuring’, which was not the case.  The CTG was discontinued, in spite of the results giving cause for alarm.
The CTG monitor was employed again four hours later and again showed serious cause for concern, but the attendant midwife failed to raise the alarm.
It was six hours more before the CGT monitor was used again, and by this time the machine failed to locate the baby’s heartbeat.  His death was confirmed.
Doctors induced labour and baby Carl was delivered the next afternoon.  The umbilical cord was wrapped tightly round his legs.
An inquest confirmed that Carl died of hypoxia, a lack of oxygen.
The hospital trust admitted that Ms Stokes should have been admitted to hospital when she was displaying symptoms of pre-eclampsia and the results of the CTG should have been seen as suspicious, leading to baby Carl’s delivery by emergency caesarean section.  Had this been done then Carl would have survived.
In a letter of apology, the hospital admits that Ms Plume’s care ‘fell below the standard you were reasonably entitled to expect’.  It goes on to offer ‘sincere and unreserved aplogies’.
Ms Stokes’ lawyer is Madeline Seibert, a clinical negligence specialist and partner with Harlow-based Attwaters.
‘The tragedy of this case is that there were several opportunities to see that something was going wrong with Louise’s pregnancy,’ says Madeline Seibert.
‘But they failed to admit Louise to hospital and conduct appropriate investigations, and then to compound matters when CTG monitoring took place the results were not interpreted properly. 
‘This shows how important it is for midwives and junior doctors to have adequate training in relation to interpreting CTG readings. There is no point having tools to monitor the wellbeing of the baby if medical staff lack the training needed to recognize when emergency action is necessary.
 ‘As a mother myself I can only try to imagine the grief that Louise and her partner Charles must have suffered.’
In a joint statement, Louise Stokes and Charles Plume said:
‘Although two years have passed we have still not come to terms with the fact that Carl is not with us.
‘When Louise was sent to hospital with suspected pre-clampsia, we researched the symptoms.  We queried the symptoms with the consultant on our next visit, but we were not listened to or taken seriously.
‘If it weren’t for the Princess Alexandra hospital’s incompetence we would have our perfect family.
‘We would like to thank Madeline Seibert for her guidance and support through this tough period.  Without her the result of the incident would have gone unnoticed.’