Ruby was referred to Claire Stoneman in our specialist baby loss team by the charity Aching Arms.
Ruby had Type 1 diabetes so her pregnancy was high risk. Her baby, Charlie, was big on many of her scans, often being over the 90th centile, and Ruby was initially told that her baby should be delivered at around 36-37 weeks of pregnancy because of his size.
Ruby should have received additional monitoring of her pregnancy
At several points of a period of weeks, Ruby noticed that Charlie seemed to be moving less than usual and so she was being monitored more than usual. During one of her visits, the plan to deliver her at 36-37 weeks was changed and it was instead decided that she should be induced at 38 weeks.
At almost 38 weeks pregnant, Ruby went to hospital because she thought that her waters had broken. Unfortunately, when the midwives checked on her it was found that her waters had not broken, and they could not find Charlie’s heartbeat. A scan confirmed that, tragically, he had passed away.
Charlie was stillborn by forceps two days later. The Hospital Trust that had been responsible for Ruby and Charlie’s care carried out a Perinatal Mortality Review meeting which acknowledged that Ruby should have been induced before reaching 38 weeks pregnant. Had this happened, Charlie would have survived.
How we helped Ruby obtain compensation
Due to our early approach to the Hospital Trust asking that, because of the findings of their investigations, they admit they were liable for Charlie’s death, we were really pleased to be able to settle Ruby’s claim within 13 months of her contacting Enable Law.
Ruby was successful in claiming £55,000 in compensation. Within days, Ruby and her husband welcomed the safe arrival of their second baby.
Ruby had lost some of her faith in the NHS as a result of the poor care that she had received, so decided to have some private obstetric input in her second pregnancy in order to put her mind at ease. She also chose to attend a different NHS hospital, even though it was further away from home.
We were successful in recovering some of the private costs for Ruby’s future pregnancies to ensure that she can continue to have the reassurance of private scans and private obstetric input if she feels that it is needed. Whilst no amount of money is ever going to compensate her and her family, we also obtained the costs for some psychiatric therapy for Ruby to help her to process the tragic events.
