A Newcastle hospital trust has admitted that a baby girl would have survived if her mother had not been sent home while suffering from pre-eclampsia. The mother was later told her unborn daughter had died, then handed a bereavement booklet and asked to schedule the birth for another day.
Danielle Brown, 31, of North Shields in north-east England, has received an undisclosed settlement from the Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The trust accepted a breach of duty over the care she received at the Royal Victoria Infirmary.
Discharged against earlier advice
Brown was seven months pregnant in February 2023 when she became unwell and was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, a complication that can threaten a mother's life. Doctors monitoring her had also flagged worries about her daughter Maisie's heart rate.
One consultant obstetrician advised that Brown stay in the hospital until she delivered. A second consultant reviewed her the following day, and she was discharged on Feb. 14, just 24 hours after that advice.
The next day she called the maternity assessment unit with new concerns, and staff suggested a stomach bug was the likely cause. Brown pushed to be examined, went back in, and after a 90-minute wait for assessment was told no heartbeat could be found.
Settlement and apology
Rather than delivering Maisie immediately, staff gave Brown a booklet for bereaved parents and told her to book a time to give birth, she said. She has said no one explained to her what had happened to her daughter, and that the lack of compassion left her angry.
After saying goodbye to Maisie, we had to walk through a labour ward seeing parents going home with their babies.
Danielle Brown, Maisie's mother
Ian Joy, an executive director at the trust, apologized and accepted that parts of the care fell short of what the family had a right to expect. He said a detailed review in 2023 led the trust to improve urgent assessment for women arriving with unexpected symptoms or suspected complications.
Joy added that the trust had recently been judged to be performing well against national standards.
Faisal Ali of the law firm Irwin Mitchell, which represented the family, said pre-eclampsia demands close monitoring. He said the firm acts for hundreds of families across the country affected by maternity failings.
Put simply, maternity services aren’t good enough, resulting in mums and babies being put at risk because of deep-rooted problems nationally.
Faisal Ali, Irwin Mitchell
Brown and her partner, Anthony Miller, have since had a son, Harrison, who is now two. Brown is calling for better maternity care and for compassionate support for families when things go wrong.
