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It's really on behalf of my wife and my young son.
3 years ago (02/08/2017) My wife was 4 weeks short of her due date, when she started to bleed out of the blue. As time progressed the bleeding wasn't stopping. So, we called maternity assessment and long story short found ourselves in maternity assessment, waiting to be seen. My wife had a trace on, and we were left for what seemed quite a while before we were seen to. We couldn't go up to the ward as there were no beds, but we now feel that my wife should have been considered urgent. Anyway, it got to the point where she was assessed and was sent straight to the labour suite. The labour was quite a difficult one for her, she continued to bleed, and it was assessed that she had in fact had a placental abruption. What we feel now is that my wife should have been give an emergency caesarean. Instead they tried to give her a natural birth and tried a couple of things to help with that. As it turns out the baby was back to back and it would have been very difficult to achieve that. So, and emergency caesarean was carried out.
Everything seemed a relief after that, but we did notice even in the hospital, my son would cry a lot if you picked him up. He also had difficulty feeding. So, we got him home, but these issues continued and around week four we took him to A&E. There we were told that some babies are "just lazy feeders" and to keep trying. This didn't account for him crying all the time, especially if you moved him or picked him up.
On week nine, we took him back. This time we felt he had silent reflux, which is what the doctor agreed with us about. By this time my son was looking pretty ill and we were very worried. Only two days later we found ourselves going back to the hospital. But this time when we got there my son was unresponsive and as white as a ghost. We rushed him into A&E and he immediately was give lifesaving care. He suffered a cardiac arrest and had stopped breathing. Thankfully they saved his life. After a week in PICU testing for possible sepsis, and after numerous scans they found what was an infection in his throat, which in turn had caused a destabilisation of his top two vertebrae, which had caused a pinching injury on his spinal cord.
We spent another 3 months is in PICU and 5 more in a ward. His care during that time was amazing. It had its moments, but on the whole it was amazing. From the very day of my son’s traumatic incident to now my wife and I have been so focused on the care of our son and his older brother. However, every waking moment is filled with the needs of our son and is complex conditions. As a result, he has a Tracheostomy, Gastrostomy and undiagnosed palsy of some sort. He has limited mobility and has difficulty communicating. The doctors have never seen anything like it in a child so young, so they do not know how to label it.
So now we have been thinking of getting some answers as we still are not really sure what happened or what caused it all. It is our belief that it all stems from the labour, so we have on a couple of occasions tried to obtain the maternity records to get some answers. However, we tried to do this via our consultant and community nurse, who had offered to get them for us. But it was only after waiting months on both occasions that we were advised that we would have to ask for them ourselves. So, we now find ourselves years down the line where it seems the time has run out. We haven't made the complaint to the NHS because of this, but we do feel there was possible negligence during the birth of our son. What we would like to know is it too late? My wife, and I at times find it really hard to revisit this. More so my wife. This is why I am writing to you now. We have both been on antidepressants and we find ourselves very limited in our lifestyles. I apologise for this being so long winded, but even now there are bits and pieces missing from the whole story.
Thanks in advance to any advice on this.
Regards and thanks
James
3 years ago (02/08/2017) My wife was 4 weeks short of her due date, when she started to bleed out of the blue. As time progressed the bleeding wasn't stopping. So, we called maternity assessment and long story short found ourselves in maternity assessment, waiting to be seen. My wife had a trace on, and we were left for what seemed quite a while before we were seen to. We couldn't go up to the ward as there were no beds, but we now feel that my wife should have been considered urgent. Anyway, it got to the point where she was assessed and was sent straight to the labour suite. The labour was quite a difficult one for her, she continued to bleed, and it was assessed that she had in fact had a placental abruption. What we feel now is that my wife should have been give an emergency caesarean. Instead they tried to give her a natural birth and tried a couple of things to help with that. As it turns out the baby was back to back and it would have been very difficult to achieve that. So, and emergency caesarean was carried out.
Everything seemed a relief after that, but we did notice even in the hospital, my son would cry a lot if you picked him up. He also had difficulty feeding. So, we got him home, but these issues continued and around week four we took him to A&E. There we were told that some babies are "just lazy feeders" and to keep trying. This didn't account for him crying all the time, especially if you moved him or picked him up.
On week nine, we took him back. This time we felt he had silent reflux, which is what the doctor agreed with us about. By this time my son was looking pretty ill and we were very worried. Only two days later we found ourselves going back to the hospital. But this time when we got there my son was unresponsive and as white as a ghost. We rushed him into A&E and he immediately was give lifesaving care. He suffered a cardiac arrest and had stopped breathing. Thankfully they saved his life. After a week in PICU testing for possible sepsis, and after numerous scans they found what was an infection in his throat, which in turn had caused a destabilisation of his top two vertebrae, which had caused a pinching injury on his spinal cord.
We spent another 3 months is in PICU and 5 more in a ward. His care during that time was amazing. It had its moments, but on the whole it was amazing. From the very day of my son’s traumatic incident to now my wife and I have been so focused on the care of our son and his older brother. However, every waking moment is filled with the needs of our son and is complex conditions. As a result, he has a Tracheostomy, Gastrostomy and undiagnosed palsy of some sort. He has limited mobility and has difficulty communicating. The doctors have never seen anything like it in a child so young, so they do not know how to label it.
So now we have been thinking of getting some answers as we still are not really sure what happened or what caused it all. It is our belief that it all stems from the labour, so we have on a couple of occasions tried to obtain the maternity records to get some answers. However, we tried to do this via our consultant and community nurse, who had offered to get them for us. But it was only after waiting months on both occasions that we were advised that we would have to ask for them ourselves. So, we now find ourselves years down the line where it seems the time has run out. We haven't made the complaint to the NHS because of this, but we do feel there was possible negligence during the birth of our son. What we would like to know is it too late? My wife, and I at times find it really hard to revisit this. More so my wife. This is why I am writing to you now. We have both been on antidepressants and we find ourselves very limited in our lifestyles. I apologise for this being so long winded, but even now there are bits and pieces missing from the whole story.
Thanks in advance to any advice on this.
Regards and thanks
James
