Medical Negligence

Doctors failed to warn mother about health risk to her child during pregnancy

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Samantha Gardner

Associate Solicitor

2 min read time
19 Jul 2024

A mother who was not informed her baby was at risk of being born with a life-threatening illness has received £75,000 from a health trust, after it accepted failing them.

The girl was born in July 2020 at Hull’s Women and Children’s Hospital, but died two months later.

Following legal action led by Hudgell Solicitors, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust accepted the woman should have been referred to specialists for counselling on the risks when she was 12 weeks’ pregnant.

Dr Kate Wood, group chief medical officer for NHS Humber Health Partnership, said in a statement to the BBC:  “We regret that our care fell below the standards that both the family and our teams would expect.”
“The trust has admitted breaching its duty of care towards the mother and her child several years ago, and would like to apologise once again for the distress caused, as well as the missed opportunities in investigating and communicating the potential risks.

“As with any incident resulting in harm, we are committed to future learning. The incident was fully investigated when it took place several years ago, and we have since taken a number of steps to reduce the likelihood of repetition, including improving communication between teams and increasing capacity to carry out foetal scans.

“We regret that our care fell below the standards that both the family and our teams would expect.”

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Doctors failed to warn mother about health risk to her child during pregnancy

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