Mother's praise for staff who defied cyber attack to deliver her twins

A mother who gave birth to twin girls in the midst of the ransomware cyber attack has praised staff who cared for her.

Cheryl McNulty had a high risk pregnancy as she had a condition called placenta praevia, and her babies had to be delivered several weeks early on Saturday morning.

They were born in the early hours at 3.12am and 3.13am at an NHS Lanarkshire hospital.

The health board was one of dozens around the UK affected by the unprecedented cyber attack which hit scores of countries on Friday.

Ms McNulty said: "I had a condition called placenta praevia, which made my pregnancy high risk.

"I had a moderate bleed on Tuesday, which meant that I was kept in to be monitored.

"Early on Saturday morning I had a heavy bleed and the decision was taken to deliver the babies early.

"The whole team came together to deliver my babies. There was no sense of panic.

"Everyone knew their role and I felt completely safe.

"They were all fantastic with me."

Ms McNulty and her partner Scott Wright are currently choosing names for their daughters, who were born by caesarean section when Ms McNulty was 34 weeks and six days pregnant.

She said: "The staff were absolutely brilliant.

"If they hadn't explained to me about the cyber attack, I wouldn't have been aware that there were any issues.

"The only thing I noticed was that everything was done on paper rather than a computer.

"From my point of view, it didn't have any impact on my patient experience at all.

"I couldn't say a bad word about the care that I received. It was such a positive experience."

The couple, from Bellshill, hope to be able to go home as a family soon.

At NHS Lanarkshire, a specially assembled strategic group, led by chief executive Calum Campbell, closed down computer systems at around 4pm on Friday to contain the damage.

Amanda Kennet, senior midwife for inpatients, said: "In maternity services, we are used to working in high stress situations and always aim to deliver good quality care no matter the circumstances

"Everyone played a vital role in Cheryl's care.

"It shows that although we were dealing with adversity, keeping patients safe was the number one priority for every member of staff on shift.

"Cheryl is happy with the care that she received, which is testament to the staff and their professionalism.

"It doesn't matter what comes along, we pull together and deal with it. You can't break NHS Lanarkshire staff.

"We do this job because we love people and our patients are our priority."

NHS Lanarkshire said the vast majority of outpatient clinics and planned operations went ahead as normal on Monday May 15.