NHS payout after mother bleeds to death
Wednesday May 24, 2006
An NHS hospital agreed yesterday to pay £300,000 in compensation for a blunder that allowed a young mother to bleed to death after a consultant obstetrician decided to deal with her case by telephone. Swansea NHS trust admitted liability for breach of duty in the case of Diana Price, 24, who began haemorrhaging at home when she was eight and a half months pregnant.
Ms Price was taken to the trust's Singleton hospital on Swansea Bay, where she and her partner were told the baby had already died in the womb. She was diagnosed with an abruption of the placenta and doctors agreed she should deliver the baby naturally. Staff called the consultant obstetrician at 8pm. He said he was happy with the management plan and decided not to attend. But Ms Price continued to bleed internally and collapsed at 3.10am. The consultant saw her for the first time at 4.30am and took her into the operating theatre. She died at 6.20am after her uterus ruptured.
The incident happened in 2001, but it took until yesterday for the trust to admit its liability, in an out-of-court settlement of a legal action brought by Ms Price's mother, Jackie Harris, and partner, Craig Richards. They sued on behalf of her two surviving children, aged 10 and six.
Jane Perrin, the trust's chief executive, wrote to the family to apologise. "She expressed regret that, as a result of insufficient cooperation and communication between the specialist teams, the opportunity to begin blood replacement more expeditiously was missed, leading to Ms Price's untimely death," the trust said.
"Revised procedures have been put in place to help ensure such an incident does not reoccur," it added.
Mrs Harris, who cares for the children, accused the trust of "heartless arrogance" in taking so long to admit liability.