Sandra and her partner thought their baby son had died from natural causes. They later discovered that he could have survived if hospital staff had read CTG traces correctly that showed the baby was in distress.
Staff tried to revive the baby they named Jack after he was born. A postmortem examination revealed that Jack was a normal healthy baby boy and a series of tests failed to detect any problems.
The family felt something was wrong and when they failed to get satisfactory answers from hospital staff to their many questions, the couple started legal proceedings.
Last month, the couple represented by Manchester based solicitors Alexander Harris, agreed an out of court compensation settlement for an undisclosed sum with Calderdale Healthcare NHS Trust.
The Chief Executive of Calderdale Healthcare NHS Trust, Haden Cook, said "We very much regret what has happened here and have every sympathy with Miss Kennedy. The Trust Board have discussed the circumstances of her case and we do plan to write to her with an apology now that a settlement has been reached. We are always keen to learn from incidents of this kind and we have put systems in place since this happened to improve the standard of care." A spokesman for the Trust added that all midwives who worked in Calderdale's hospitals had to undertake compulsory training in CTG scanning, while all midwives wherever they work, were now required by their professional body to prove that they were comfortably keeping their skills up to date.
Related news stories
- 11/08/2006: Maternity failings at Royal Cornwall Hospital result in baby death
- 10/07/2006: NICE warns of baby death risk associated with midwife birth centres
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Your attention to detail and thorough pursuance won through in what was a very difficult case. Thank you for your excellent service: Mrs Hunt, West Midlands
