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NHS payout after mother bleeds to death

Wednesday May 24, 2006

An NHS hospital agreed yesterday to pay £300,000 in

compensation for a blunder that allowed a young mother

to bleed to death after a consultant obstetrician

decided to deal with her case by telephone. Swansea

NHS trust admitted liability for breach of duty in the

case of Diana Price, 24, who began haemorrhaging at

home when she was eight and a half months pregnant.

Ms Price was taken to the trust's Singleton hospital

on Swansea Bay, where she and her partner were told

the baby had already died in the womb. She was

diagnosed with an abruption of the placenta and

doctors agreed she should deliver the baby naturally.

Staff called the consultant obstetrician at 8pm. He

said he was happy with the management plan and decided

not to attend. But Ms Price continued to bleed

internally and collapsed at 3.10am. The consultant saw

her for the first time at 4.30am and took her into the

operating theatre. She died at 6.20am after her uterus

ruptured.

The incident happened in 2001, but it took until

yesterday for the trust to admit its liability, in an

out-of-court settlement of a legal action brought by

Ms Price's mother, Jackie Harris, and partner, Craig

Richards. They sued on behalf of her two surviving

children, aged 10 and six.

Jane Perrin, the trust's chief executive, wrote to the

family to apologise. " She expressed regret that, as a

result of insufficient cooperation and communication

between the specialist teams, the opportunity to begin

blood replacement more expeditiously was missed,

leading to Ms Price's untimely death, " the trust said.

" Revised procedures have been put in place to help

ensure such an incident does not reoccur, " it added.

Mrs Harris, who cares for the children, accused the

trust of " heartless arrogance " in taking so long to

admit liability.