Diane Price, mother of two, aged 24 years, bled to death following delivery of a stillborn baby, five years ago. Her family, which was traumatized owing to the mother’s death, would now be offered a £300,000 compensation for the negligent act. Swansea NHS Trust also admitted liability for breach of duty in her case.
She was admitted to the hospital when she was 8 and a half-month pregnant. She was told that her baby had passed away in the uterus and that she should opt for normal delivery as C-section may have complications.Her mother Jackie Harris, of Cwmavon, Port Talbot, had been linked in five-year court proceedings. ‘I watched my beautiful daughter die in agony. Had the doctors got it right she would still be with me, her partner Craig and the children. I feel incredibly angry that the people supposed to be looking after her didn't do their job. We trusted the professionals but we were badly let down, ‘ said the frustrated mother. When the attending physicians were contacted in April 2004, they said that they had tried their best to save her and insisted that she died due to natural causes.
The family when asked regarding the fatal night of July 2001, said Mrs. Price was bleeding heavily while being taken into Singleton Hospital in Swansea. She was screaming with pain around her scar from the previous two caesarean operations.
Diane collapsed at 3.10am and only after 40 minutes did a consultant obstetrician saw her and took her into theatre where her dead baby was delivered. Though the surgeons tried their best she died of bleeding from the ruptured uterus. The hospital chief executive did say sorry to the family members on Tuesday, as per a Swansea NHS Trust statement.
It further added that blood loss was left unattended to as a result of poor co-operation and communication between the specialist team, resulting in death of the 24-year old mother.
Though Mrs. Harris, who now lives with her daughter's two children at Cwmavon, Port Talbot, accepted the settlement, she is unhappy with the way the hospital behaved with the family. It was only after 5 years after going to the solicitor that the hospital has taken the blame. Mrs. Harris feels no compensation can get her Diane back and is extremely upset. But she went through all this so that it not repeated another time.
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