TRIGGER WARNING: This post contains information about stillbirth and infant loss, which may be triggering to some.
A couple in the UK are mourning the untimely loss of their newborn daughter. The baby died at only hours old due to a preventable illness. When her mother went to the hospital in labor, she was kept waiting for a shocking amount of hours because the maternity ward at the hospital was too busy to accommodate her.
Because of what is most definitely hospital negligence, it was unlikely the newborn would survive. And now the devastated parents are suing the hospital. Of course it won’t bring their daughter back, but it will hopefully teach the hospital a lesson.
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The mom had already passed her due date.
Chelsea Wootton was supposed to be induced at 41 weeks, according to law firm Irwin Mitchell, which is representing her case. In a statement, they claim that the 31-year-old first time mom “wasn’t warned of the dangers” of going past 41 weeks.
On August 24, 2023, a day before she was set to be induced, Wootton believed that she was in labor, so she took herself to the hospital.
That was when everything began to fall apart.
Upon arriving at the hospital, Wootton was admitted, where she was in labor for 60 hours. Despite having an induction scheduled, she was not induced due to “a lack of hospital capacity,” the Coroner’s Court was told. On August 26, 2023, she was sent home and told to return the next day.
Her body had other plans, however. Several hours after being discharged, her water broke. She was readmitted.
When she was admitted, Wootton was considered 'low-risk.'
Hours after being admitted, doctors detected meconium, a baby’s first bowel movement in utero. Wootton then asked for a C-section, citing concerns for her baby’s well-being. She was denied because there were other emergencies on the maternity ward. About 11:20 a.m., the baby’s heart rate was classed as suspicious.
“It was only when concerns were raised about Ava-Lea’s heart rate did it feel that our care was a priority. By then it was too late,” Wootton shared in the statement. Her daughter was born with the assistance of forceps.
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The baby had suffered from lack of oxygen before birth.
Because of the meconium, Ava-Lea had trouble breathing. The newborn had developed sepsis and was immediately taken to the NICU. Just 35 hours after being born, the infant was gone.
“Seeing Ava-Lea after she was born was awful. We can’t thank the neo-natal doctors and nurses for everything they did for Ave-Lea and make her as comfortable as she could be,” Wootton said in the law firm statement. “We’ll always cherish those precious few hours we got to spend with her but I’m not sure we’ll ever get over what happened. Instead of bringing her home and starting our new lives together we had to say goodbye and leave her in hospital.”
The hospital is taking responsibility for Ava-Lea's death.
Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, which runs the hospital Wootton had her newborn in, accepted liability for the baby’s death.
“This is unbearably sad and we are deeply distressed at the loss of Ava-Lea. We extend our deepest sympathies to her parents, wider family and friends. We have all learned from this tragedy and have already enacted a plan to monitor the improvements we have made,” Helen Hurst, director of midwifery for the trust, shared in a statement to People. “We apologised to Ava-Lea’s family when we met with them to share the findings of our own investigation.”
