Mother of premature baby who died at 'award-winning' hospital says it was a 'gross failure'

Kaf Okpattah went to speak to the mothers about what they hope for the future.

The mother of a baby who died after neglect at a hospital says there was a "catalogue of failures" which amounted to "a lack of basic care".

Selina Mazumder lost her daughter, Elena, in April 2020. She was one of two premature babies that died within weeks of eachother at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Elena was born on 16 April and her condition was classed as moderate.

But, two days later, routine monitoring revealed she had too much acid in her blood, known as metabolic acidosis and she was prescribed a sodium bicarbonate infusion.

She was instead given a sodium nitrite infusion and she died that day.

"I was expecting a baby in 2020 and she came three months early, I was rushed to Chelsea and Westminster hospital with the expectation I was going to have the baby three months early, and she was delivered at 25 weeks and two days," said Ms Mazumder.

"We went home grieving our child, thinking she had died from prematurity and then 10 or 13 days later we received a call from the chief nurse and she told us she had some terrible news and told us that there was a medication error...and that she had died from this medication error.

"We were already grieving our child and to be told some more bad news, it was quite confusing...it was just shock and disbelief that she died in this manner."

A medical negligence lawyer, Frankie Rhodes, said: "The reason that we do this work, is that we're hopeful lessons will be learned and mistakes won't be repeated.

"There are some encouraging steps, there are inquiries taking place into trusts where the standard of care has dropped below reasonable standards.

"Ultimately, I don't think things are improving. There are staff shortages, there's a need for-reinvestment into training and improving outcomes, and ultimately while things remain the way they are patient safety is a real concern."

Westminster Coroners’ Court heard Elena Ali and Sunny Parker-Propst were both given sodium nitrite instead of sodium bicarbonate in 2020 while under the care of staff at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Ms Mazumder continued: "She was at an award-winning Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), we thought she was in the best place possible, Chelsea and Westminster has a reputation for being one of the best hospitals in London so we had no reason to think something like this would happen.

"To not be undertaking the right checks, when dealing with pre-term babies who are the most vulnerable in society, it's really shocking."

Ms Ali went back to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their second pregnancy, after staff promised they would go "above and beyond" and make sure they went home with a "living baby".

"It's left us really fearful, in dealing with hospitals," she said.

"I hope the lessons learned are shared with other NHS trusts, and I hope the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) undertake a review about what's happened here and whether they could have taken more action."

Sunny Parker-Propst was born prematurely two weeks later, on 30 April, and was transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for continuing care.

He was also prescribed a sodium bicarbonate infusion due to metabolic acidosis, but was given a sodium nitrite infusion in error after it was wrongly stocked on the NICU and selected and administered by nursing staff. He died on 9 May.

His mother, Kerstin Propst says she couldn't believe this happened to two babies.

"It was shocking, I always said now that it had happened to Sunny, I hope it won't happen again so to hear that was very upsetting, they didn't want us to be in touch at the beginning, I think it took four or six months," she said.

Ms Mazumder hopes the new government will help bring change to the NHS, and prevent things like this from happening in the future.

"There's been a lot of discussion and talk of change and transformation in the NHS and the new secretary of state for health and social care has spoken about the change and transformation that's needed," she said.

"I hope there are three things that are included in that - focus on patient safety, a review of a maternity care for bereaved parents and under-represented groups, and I also hope an assessment is undertaken to understand whether regulatory groups like the CQC and the MHRA are fit for purpose and whether they're really holding health and social care settings to the right level of regulatory scrutiny."

In response, Lesley Watts, chief executive of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We apologise unreservedly for the failings in care provided to Elena and Sunny."

Ms Watts added: “We took immediate action to put measures in place to prevent such tragic incidents from happening again.”

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