A BABY died minutes after being born because her mother was incorrectly given a drug to speed up labour, an inquest heard.
The hearing into Olivia Bellis’s death also found that staff at Macclesfield General Hospital misread the baby’s heartbeat and incorrectly recorded her as stillborn.
The inquest at Macclesfield Town Hall heard that Olivia Bellis was alive when she was born at Macclesfield Hospital on September 22, 2009, but had begun to struggle for oxygen during the early hours of labour.
Concerns were raised when Olivia’s heart rate decreased, but it was incorrectly concluded this was due to an epidural given to her mother, an inquest heard.
Staff then gave Olivia’s mum Louise Carter oxytocin to increase contractions and speed up labour, but the drug, which compresses the womb as contractions speed up, squashed the umbilical cord making it even harder for the baby to breathe, said Dr Edwin Chandraharan, who wrote a report after Olivia’s death.
Staff didn’t notice any further problems with the baby’s heart rate because they were reading the mother’s in error, the coroner concluded.
Olivia was rushed into resuscitation when she was born but the team could not save her, medical staff told the inquest.
Recording a verdict of death by misadventure, Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg said Olivia died due to being starved of oxygen in birth due to her mum being given the oxytocin.
He said: “The effects of the oxytocin were to exaggerate and prolong normal compression of the umbilical cord and as a result Olivia was starved of oxygen. The situation was not immediately irreversible but by the time Olivia was born the point of no return had passed. There were other errors which led to the gravity of the situation not being appreciated even right to the end. In the later stages of labour it was the mother’s heart rate being monitored rather than the fetal heart rate.”
Mr Rheinberg said staff incorrectly associated the changes in the baby’s heart rate with the epidural. He also said a proper examination should have been done before Miss Carter was given the oxytocin, as in the hospital protocol.
He further concluded that fetal scalp electrodes should have been used to monitor the baby’s heart rate.
Lynda Moorcroft, head of midwifery at Macclesfield Hospital, told the inquest procedures have now been tightened up with better training on heart rate scanners. Staff are also working within national guidelines for issuing oxytocin.
Speaking after the inquest, an East Cheshire NHS Trust spokesperson said: “We deeply regret any instances where our care falls below the standards our patients and their families expect from us. Every year we provide safe and effective care for thousands of patients, both in hospital and community settings, but sometimes things can go wrong, especially when dealing with complex cases. We take any such instances very seriously and strive to ensure lessons are learned and procedures put in place to stop the same thing from happening again.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the family.”
Olivia’s mum and dad, Bradley Bellis, live at Middlewich Road in Holmes Chapel.
Their lawyer, Helen Lewis, said: “This has been an extremely traumatic time for the family. It may have come more than five years after Olivia died but they welcome the coroner’s ruling. They hope that lessons have been learned from this tragedy and that no other families have to go through what they have.”
