Hospital Apology After Death Of Four Day Old Baby
A hospital trust has apologised for the ``sub-standard care'' of a four-day-old baby
A hospital trust has apologised for the sub-standard care'' of a four-day-old baby who died at the same hospital where six other babies and three mothers also died within an eight-month period. Dylan Oates died on January 20, 2014, after suffering a brain injury due to lack of oxygen when he was being born at the Royal Oldham Hospital, Greater Manchester. Gill Harris, Chief Nurse at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, has apologised for thefailings and sub-standard care afforded to Dylan and his parents''. An independent, external review was ordered into the maternity deaths at the Royal Oldham and North Manchester General Hospitals in 2014. An inquest into Dylan's death found that he had suffered from hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy and perinatal hypoxia. Area Coroner for North Manchester, Lisa Hashmi, found that staff had failed to follow guidelines and efficiently monitor mother and baby which led to them missing irregularities in his heartbeat. Jayne Oates, of Littleborough, Greater Manchester, had been admitted to the hospital on January 14, 2014, to have her first baby induced because she was overdue. Two days later Dylan was born. Following his birth Dylan was taken to intensive care not breathing or crying and over the coming days his condition deteriorated. Mrs Hashmi concluded that Dylan had suffered neglect at the hospital and said that his death could have been prevented. Further failings included poor midwifery leadership, poor staffing levels and ambiguity in the trust's guidelines. Since Dylan's death, the trust has reviewed and made significant changes to induction of labour policy and guidelines, increased investment in staffing, focus on improved communication between staff, and investment in obstetric equipment. In a statement, Dylan's father Martin Oates said: We are devastated by the loss of Dylan. Although our time with Dylan was very brief, we absolutely adored him and always will.This investigation has uncovered that many things should have been done differently during the days leading up to Dylan's birth. It gives us some comfort that as a result of this investigation improvements are being made.'' In apologising to the family, Ms Harris said: This is a desperately sad case and I would like to reiterate our sincere apology and express our sympathy to baby Dylan's parents, Jayne and Martin, and their family for their loss.The trust takes these incidents very seriously and for this reason the circumstances surrounding this case which happened in January 2014 were included in the independent external review we commissioned in 2014 into a small number of maternity cases at our hospitals in addition to our thorough internal investigation. Since then, we have reviewed the whole of our maternity care services, our policies, our procedures, and put in place a number of measures and learning as part of a maternity improvement programme.Where the trust has made mistakes and the standards of care have fallen short of what both our staff and patients expect, we are deeply sorry and are committed to learning and improving all aspects of care we provide. We are grateful to the coroner in acknowledging that substantial efforts and improvements have been made by the trust since Dylan's death through the implementation of our maternity improvement programme. We fully accept the coroner's findings and would like to apologise for the failings and sub-standard care afforded to Dylan and his parents.'' Helen Niebuhr, of Darbys Solicitors, who represented the family added:The inquest process, as difficult as it was for the family to relive the events, has provided some satisfaction in both the answers to a number of questions and reassurances regarding the level of treatment others should now receive. They have lost their beautiful baby son and hope that the tragedy of his death and the recommendations the coroner has made may help to save the lives of mothers and babies at Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust in the future.''