Baby died after just 36 hours
A baby died hours after being born because of complications suffered during his birth.
An inquest heard that Joanne Hiball had been due to be induced a day earlier but was turned away because there were no empty beds at Wigan Infirmary.
Her baby, Reuben Wright, was just 36 hours old when he died from hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy which had starved him of oxygen for around 30 minutes during his birth, Bolton Coroner's Court was told.
Doctors at Wigan Infirmary took the decision to perform an emergency Caesarean and Reuben, of Grasscroft Road, Hindley Green, was born at around 4pm on January 10 this year.
But he was unable to breathe independently and was placed on to specialist respiratory equipment, the court was told.
After he struggled to breathe for some hours, doctors, in consultation with his family, took the decision to take him off the respirator and he died in the intensive care unit at Wigan Infirmary at 6pm on January 11, just a day-and-a-half after being born.
The inquest was told that Reuben's mother, who was 39 at the time of the birth, had suffered from high blood pressure for more than 10 years.
She had been due to be induced a day earlier but was turned away because there were no empty beds.
Despite her high blood pressure and suffering from continuing bleeding and pain during labour, the attending midwives failed to recognise these as potential symptoms of a placental abruption.
Click next page for more ...An abruption happens where the placenta becomes detached from the uterus and can cause a blood clot resulting in brain injury.
Sean Burns, a consultant obstretrician and gynaecologist at Wigan Infirmary, said that with the benefit of hindsight it was possible that the abruption could have been recognised and monitored earlier.
Melanie Newbould, a paediatric pathologist with the Manchester Children's Hospital Trust, said: "Reuben was a normal, grown baby for his gestation period and he was perfectly normally formed.
"If he had been born before the abruption he would have been born normally."
Coroner Jennifer Leeming returned a narrative verdict, concluding that Reuben Wright died as a consequence of placental abruption in the course of his birth.
Mrs Leeming said: "I can imagine that there is no greater distress than that you must have suffered as a family at the death of your son.
"I am so sorry that this has happened, please accept my most sincere and heartfelt sympathy."
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Thursday 02 September 2010
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