Midwives facing action over death of newborn baby at former Stafford Hospital

Midwife Carol Marston has accepted silencing an alarm 16 times during a night shift as baby Rupert Sanders' pulse rate slowed dramatically.

Mrs Marston and her colleague, Anne Mather, failed to properly monitor his heart in the last 16 minutes before birth and delayed pressing the emergency alarm, the Nursing and Midwifery Council was told yesterday.

Eleven hours after Rupert's mother Lauren went to the hospital in labour, he was stillborn with the umbilical cord around his neck at 1.06am on Christmas Eve, 2014.

He died three days later of multiple organ failure.

Mrs Marston told a previous hearing she did not see there was 'anything of concern' in the hours before the birth and failed to notice the CTG (cardiotocograph, used to measure a baby's heartbeat) was 'pathological' (abnormal).

But she has admitted her clinical assessment of CTG was 'likely to have been a contributing factor to death'.

Monwara Shah, for the NMC, told the panel in respect of Mrs Marston: "There was a catalogue of errors. It was clear not only a patient, but patients were placed at harm, and even worse actual and the most tragic harm fell upon a patient in this case."

Of Ms Mather, Ms Shah added: "There were a catalogue of failings, as there were for Ms Marston. She was supposed to be in that position to ensure those errors or that failing weren't carried through, but they ultimately resulted in the worst possible outcome."

Wendy Hewitt, representing Mrs Marston, said: "Mrs Marston has always cooperated with every inquiry she has faced, and seeks in no way to resile from her role or responsibility.

"She has offered genuine, sustained and repeated messages of remorse.

"Mrs Marston mistakenly believed what she saw on the CTG was suspicious, not pathological. She got it catastrophically wrong."

Rupert's parents, Lauren and Robert, of Stoke on Trent, wept at the back of the hearing as the submissions were made.

Mrs Marston, admits failing to escalate the results of a fetal heartbeat scan or recognising them as 'pathological'.

Ms Mather has admitted misclassifying the CTG.

She denied but was found to have failed to report loss of fetal contact on the CTG, or irregular contractions. She has been cleared of a charge alleging she 'contributed towards the death of patient A'.

The hearing continues and a finding is expected to be delivered today.