Until hospitals learn from their mistakes, babies like my son will continue to die | James Titcombe

Jeremy Hunt’s new reforms are the best hope yet of ensuring health professionals are open and honest when things go wrong

• James Titcombe OBE is a patient safety campaigner and father of Joshua Titcombe, who died in hospital nine days after he was born

Between 2004 and 2013, 16 babies and three mothers died in a maternity unit at Furness general hospital. One of those babies was my own son. Joshua died on 5 November 2008 of profuse internal bleeding to his left lung. A series of serious failures before and after his birth resulted in an infection that could have easily been cured with antibiotics going untreated until he collapsed 24 hours after he was born.

After nine days of fighting for his life, Joshua died at the Freeman hospital in Newcastle despite the very best efforts of the dedicated neonatal intensive care staff.

Related: Four out of five full-term baby deaths in UK could be prevented, says study

This is the ultimate response to Morecambe Bay and other tragic cases that could be avoided with safer maternity care

Related: It’s too late for my son, but the end of the campaign for ‘normal birth’ is welcome | James Titcombe

Continue reading... November 29, 2017 at 08:52PM