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.

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