Payout for mother after twins die
A woman whose twins were stillborn after hospital staff failed to carry out routine scans has won compensation from a Midland health trust.
Stella Bate, aged 34, today spoke of her anger at discovering a scan during early pregnancy could have prevented the deaths of her identical girls four years ago.
Her case has been settled out of court by solicitors Irwin Mitchell, who say it echoes points raised in a recent report by stillbirth charity Sands. The payout has not been disclosed.
Ms Bate found that her twin daughters had been suffering from Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome, a condition only affecting twin pregnancies where both babies share one placenta.
If detected and treated early during pregnancy there is a high survival rate of at least 70 per cent.
But Ms Bate said staff at Worcestershire Royal Hospital had failed to start routine scanning at 16 weeks of pregnancy. On May 8 2005 at 20 weeks Ms Bate developed severe back and abdominal pain. She claims she was admitted to hospital but was wrongly diagnosed with a urinary infection and sent home without an ultrasound scan.
The pain became worse overnight and Ms Bate returned to hospital the following day but again said no scan was performed and she was sent home once more.
By May 14 she became so concerned that she says she again contacted the hospital but it was not until the following day that she was admitted. Even then it took more than two days for the hospital to perform a scan and it was only at this point she was given the devastating news that her twins were suffering from the Transfusion Syndrome, which means blood can be transfused disproportionately from one twin to the other. She was then transferred from Worcestershire Royal to the specialist Birmingham Women's Hospital on May 18 where she underwent treatment.
On May 23 she went into premature labour and despite the best efforts of obstetric staff, both babies were delivered stillborn. Ms Bate said: "I feel so angry and upset because despite going through the NHS complaints process and taking legal action, the trust has just brushed me off."
In a statement, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust, said today: "We would like to repeat our expression of profound regret and deepest sympathy for the circumstances giving rise to the stillbirth of the twins. Our chief executive John Rostill apologised following our review of her concerns in 2005. We are pleased that a settlement has now been agreed to her legal claim and would like to extend our best wishes."
