Women wrongly told unborn babies were dead
Friday 08 October 2010
Latest in Health News
On Facebook
Life & Style blogs
Eating disorders: The blame game
The patient will blame his/herself. The parents will blame themselves. The tabloids blame the fashio...
Online House Hunter: Stamp duty deadline approaches…
Stamp duty relief on houses under £150,000 for First Time Buyers is coming to an end - but there's a...
Access denied: Eating Disorder treatments
Nobody should have to fight or get down on their knees and beg for help. Nobody should be told that ...
Hospital bosses have apologised after two pregnant women were wrongly told that their unborn babies were dead during routine scans, it was disclosed today.
Joanna Barro, 25, was told by staff at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton that they could not detect a foetal heartbeat when she went for a scan while eight weeks pregnant with her first child.
She was advised to go home and let the miscarriage procedure take its course. She returned for a follow-up scan a week later as she refused to accept her baby was dead, and learned there was a heartbeat.
Miss Barro went on to give birth seven months later to healthy 7lb 4oz Ruby, who will be three in February.
Her case echoes that of Sofia Taylor, 22, who refused to accept her baby was dead at nine weeks in August at the same hospital and demanded a second scan which showed her pregnancy was progressing normally.
Today hospital officials reassured pregnant women in the area, saying these were isolated cases of human error which happened more than three years apart.
But Miss Barro vowed never to have another child at the same hospital, saying staff should have been 100% sure before telling her that her unborn child was dead.
Speaking from her home in Telscombe Cliffs, she said: "When they told me that Ruby didn't have a heartbeat I just cried and cried.
"Their words to me were, 'It's dead, she has miscarried, there is no heartbeat'. They sent me home with a miscarriage letter and told me to let nature take its course.
"I had really wanted a baby for ages so I didn't want to believe that I had lost it. It didn't seem real. Call it a mother's instinct, but I didn't believe she was dead.
"I thought having a miscarriage would be painful but I didn't get any of that."
After learning there was a heartbeat a week later, the single mother said she felt a mixture of happiness, confusion and anger.
"They shouldn't have told me I had miscarried without being 100% sure," she said. "They just need to sort it out because if I had not had a second scan I would have terminated Ruby.
"The hospital may say these are only isolated cases but there may be other mothers-to-be who may have terminated their babies when they needn't have."
She added that the whole saga has made her an overprotective mother. She said: "Ruby is my miracle. In my eyes I have already lost her once and I don't want to again."
Mrs Taylor, from Peacehaven, said it was "mother's intuition" that prompted her to demand a second scan at the same hospital.
"I insisted on having another test," she told the Daily Mail.
"They weren't happy about it and said I really should have a termination. If I had listened to them I would have lost my baby. It doesn't bear thinking about."
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust said it carries out 6,000 scans a year and its safety record is in the best 5% nationally.
In a letter sent to Mrs Taylor and her husband last month, trust chief executive Duncan Selbie said hospital bosses "profoundly apologise".
He said: "Human error of this sort is extremely unusual within the service and we have gone to some lengths already to investigate how this came about and to ensure that our processes and policies are sufficient so that we can be confident that a mistake of this nature will not happen again."
In a statement relating to Miss Barro, Mr Selbie said: "We have reviewed Ms Barro's notes which show that in 2007 she had a scan where we were not able to detect a heartbeat and she was advised that she had lost her pregnancy.
"In such cases we always give women the option of going home to let nature take its course, and return for a repeat scan in a week's time.
"This is what happened with Ms Barro and thankfully, at the second scan, a heartbeat was detected.
"We carry out 6,000 scans a year and our safety record is in the best 5% nationally, which is not to say that we don't make mistakes, but that they are very rare, we always act on them and apologise when we do.
"I am extremely sorry for the distress this must have caused Ms Barro in the early stages of her pregnancy."
- 1 Can we pull the plug on the plug?
- 2 The Ten Best Scotch Whiskies
- 3 Emma Watson: The girl with the magic touch
- 4 The Ten Best Places In The World To Be Gay
- 5 Experts fear diseases 'impossible to treat'
- 6 Doctor faces disciplinary hearing for daring to question NHS reforms
- 7 Menswear finds its swagger to escape role as poor relation of British fashion
- 1 Last bow for Blur at Brit awards?
- 2 How an A-grade prank by a hacker closed a school for a day
- 3 Copenhagen, probably the best city in the world
- 4 Robert Fisk: 'If only Hague and Clinton would listen to Yusuf Islam'
- 5 How did a man buried in this frozen car for two months come out of it alive?
- 6 The sci-fi movie Hollywood would not dare to make
- 7 Ian McKellen: What's wrong with us? Should we not aspire to happiness?
- 8 Mark Steel: Iraq was such a laugh, let's do it to Iran
- 9 Aborted baby lived 45 minutes
- 10 Journalists killed in Syria rocket strike 'were targeted'
Win an adventure with Subaru XV
Enjoy a three-night family adventure for four to Slaley Hall in Northumberland.
Delivering network infrastructure for London 2012
Cisco is maximising connectivity for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Free trial of our new iPad app
Get your daily dose of the best of British journalism, sponsored by American Airlines
Amazing restaurant offers
Three glasses of free champagne and a special menu at 46 top London restaurants.
Latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
Can we pull the plug on the plug?
The 10 Best Lecture Series
Michael Frayn: Still making a big noise




Comments