Parents of week old baby who died at QEUH 'felt blamed' for their daughter's death
SUNDAY MAIL EXCLUSIVE: The family said they have faced a long wait for answers.
The parents of a baby who died at Scotland's largest hospital have told how they felt blamed for the death of their daughter.
Tiny Freya Murphy was born with significant brain and organ damage after a catalogue of failures at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow led to her death.
Her parents Karen and Martin were devastated when they had to allow Freya's life support machines to be switched off when she was just seven days old.
A Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) found staffing shortages, medics' failure to notice that the baby was in distress as well as a lack of screening for Group B Streptococcus were factors in the youngster's death.
However the couple have said they have been left with more questions than answers after the FAI which took seven years to conclude.
Dad Martin, 44, from Cambuslang, near Glasgow, said: 'It was the worst thing anyone could imagine happening to them. We left that hospital with no baby and no answers.'
Karen, 40, says she had expressed the wish to have a natural birth in the early stages of her pregnancy.
However she felt this was later 'held against her' when the FAI medics suggested her wishes as a reason why they failed to intervene sooner during her labour, claiming Karen had said she wanted 'minimal intervention'. She disputes this.
Karen, a teacher of children with additional support needs, said: 'I wanted to have as natural a birth as possible which was noted down during the pregnancy and not mentioned again.
'Then suddenly it was mentioned by doctors during the FAI where it came across as an excuse or a defence for the fact they had made mistakes with Freya's birth as it was only mentioned years later.
'I would never, and did not, say I didn't want help. I wanted to do whatever was needed to get Freya out safely and I accepted whatever they told me at the hospital. It felt as if I was being blamed for what happened.'
Karen arrived at the QEUH on June 20 2018, but was left in a waiting room for two hours before being checked by medics despite already being dilated and in active labour.
She says she felt there was a 'lack of urgency' among staff. Karen had to endure an excruciating procedure to rotate Freya on a labour ward after medics realised the baby was in the wrong position for delivery but the theatre was occupied.
Karen said: 'I had to have a manual rotation in the room because there was no other option. I had no pain relief, and it wasn't done in the theatre where it should have been. There was someone else in the theatre and there was only one available.'
Martin added: 'The person who was in charge of the ward overnight was also dealing with the other patient who was in theatre so they were taken away from Karen who was the most critical.'
Medics had also attached a heart rate monitor directly to Freya's head but failed to notice that she was showing signs of distress.
During the FAI Karen's midwife claimed that she had alerted doctors to her concerns about the baby's heart rate but this was contradicted by both the consultant and junior doctor working that night.
Sheriff Divers said he favoured the doctors' evidence over the midwife due to inconsistencies between her evidence and that of other witnesses.
When medics realised Karen and Freya needed urgent help, it took a further 45 minutes for the youngster to be born - by which time it was too late. Meconium - a name for a baby's first bowel movement - was covering Freya and she was barely breathing when she finally arrived at 9.31am on Saturday July 21, 2018.
Martin said: 'When Freya came out she was purple. They put her on to Karen and then over to the resuscitation area. Even at that point we were told this was normal.'
Karen added: 'They had not grasped how unwell Freya was at all. Even when she was born we were told 'It's normal for babies not to cry straight away.'
'It was a junior paediatrician who looked at Freya and hit the emergency button. The staff delivering did not have the idea that things had gone so catastrophically wrong.'
Doctors spent 17 minutes trying to resuscitate Freya and regain a steady heartbeat. She was transferred to neonatal intensive care and was immediately placed on a ventilator.
Her parents looked on in horror after the baby they had been told would be healthy and normal was now in a fatal condition.
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They later learned that Freya had been starved of oxygen and she had significant brain and organ damage.
Karen said: 'Although it was more painful for us to let her go, we knew it was kinder to her. It was absolutely terrible. For a parent it's just a horrendous position and you have to be the one to do it for the sake of your child.'
Experts told the FAI the issues were as a result of an infection in the placenta, most likely from Group B Streptococcus, a bacterial infection common among mothers.
Karen said if medics had screened for the bug, as they do routinely in many other countries, Freya could still be alive. She also believes staff shortages contributed to the death of her daughter.
Karen said: 'If you have a baby outwith Monday to Friday 9-5, it's a completely different experience and the team of people there to support you is vastly different. It shouldn't be that way. Babies can't choose when to be born - they don't arrive to a schedule.'
The couple, who now have three children, have never returned to the QEUH for any of the births.
Martin said: 'It's been a challenge having more children after the trauma of what happened to Freya. Karen was pregnant again during the FAI which was really hard for her. We just do not want this to happen to another family, and we hope that mistakes are learned from Freya's death.'
The couple are being represented by Alan Rodgers, partner at Thompsons solicitors and are now pursuing a civil case against NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Rodgers said: 'The courage shown by the Murphys to secure this FAI has been enormous and they have waited far too long for it to be held. The Inquiry has shone a light on the reality facing clinicians in the modern Scottish NHS.
'At times care is compromised or suboptimal decisions are made purely due to lack of facilities and resources. The cutbacks and penny-pinching in our NHS needs to stop.'
Sheriff Barry Divers described the couple's wait for answers as 'simply too long', with the FAI taking seven years to conclude from when Freya died.
An NHSGGC spokeswoman said: "We would like to extend our sincerest condolences to the family of Freya Murphy, and once again to apologise for the distress they have experienced.
"Freya's death was the subject of a Fatal Accident Inquiry. We have received the recommendations of this and are working to implement them in full. This includes carrying out a review of staffing levels, and, in line with a recommendation on Group B Streptococcus, we plan to make a formal approach to the UK National Screening Committee."
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