Introduction
Harriet – who was the first baby for Jack and Sarah Hawkins – was born dead at Nottingham City Hospital on 17th April 2016. Harriet was completely normal, but she died intrapartum as a result of a mismanaged labour. At the time, Jack and Sarah both worked for NUHT. Jack was a Hospital Consultant (Clinical Director in “NHS Improvement’s”) and Sarah a Senior Physiotherapist.
Because Harriet was stillborn, there was no inquest into her death, so the couple – with the support of their solicitor, Janet Baker (Switalskis Solicitors) - embarked on their own investigations to discover the truth behind their daughter’s death which exposed the inadequacies in NUHT’s maternity services.
Legal Case
Both Jack and Sarah suffered a significant psychiatric injury because of the sudden shock of Harriet’s death and the circumstances in which it happened. Neither have been able to return to their jobs as a result.
Some five and a half years after Harriet’s death, the legal case has now settled for £2.8 million believed to be the largest pay out for stillbirth clinical negligence case. The award is so large because of the considerable psychiatric injury caused by Harriet’s death and exacerbated by NUHT’s failure to be open and transparent about what happened.
NUHT repeatedly and incorrectly tried to attribute Harriet’s death to an infection when there was none. The NUHT failed to listen to Jack and Sarah and to properly investigate and take action to make meaningful changes in culture and practice. This cycle of repeated errors has directly resulted in more babies dying and being damaged, as well as cost to the NHS.
It has been reported that more than £91m in compensation and costs was paid out by NUH from 2010 to 2020 in connection with brain damage suffered by 46 babies and 19 stillbirths.
There has also been a failure by the regulators and professional bodies (GMC/NMC/CQC and CCG), all of whom were aware of the serious concerns surrounding Sarah’s care and Harriet’s death from at least late 2017 onwards when a Root Cause Analysis Investigation Report (dated 11/12/2017) identified 13 significant care and service delivery problems and concluded that Harriet’s death was ‘almost certainly preventable’. Had there been intervention and effective action taken, it would most certainly have saved the lives of many more babies who have died since Harriet and have avoided the harm caused to their families.
Other Families & calls for a Public Inquiry
Jack and Sarah courageously chose to speak out about their ordeal in the hope that other parents affected would come forward to share their experiences. Many other families have since come forward with similar experiences of maternity services at NUHT.
The only way these families can now be heard and be confident that action will be taken to ensure that this ongoing catalogue of failings leading to babies and their families being harmed is by a completely independent Judge led Public Inquiry, rather than the current ‘Review’ which is restricted to a ‘thematic review’ which is simply an examination of the data that has already been recorded.
Sarah Hawkins - quote
“I couldn't grieve when NUHT chose to say Harriet’s death was caused by an infection, rather than their own failures. We had to keep Harriet's body in the mortuary for two years so we could keep her as "evidence". Time after time families are contacting us, and every single time I get contacted my heart sinks. History is repeating itself over and over again.
The Trust board was and still is failing to enact any change to prevent this needless harm. Harriet is not just a statistic she is our daughter. No money will ever replace Harriet. Nor would we have gone down this route had we been listened to, believed and heard. The continual victim blaming has left us with significant psychiatric injuries and unable to return to work at NUH or the NHS at present. NUH killed my daughter and ruined my career I loved and worked so hard to get.”
Jack Hawkins – quote
“When Harriet died, the maternity leaders and the hospital leaders were all very soon aware we knew she should be alive. Their behaviour should have been to admit and apologise, to learn everything they could from us and to cherish her existence with better care. We would, had that been the case, told Harriet's story to new midwives at NUH to help them understand what went wrong and how easy it would be for them to prevent it from happening to others.
This did not happen. Instead, we have had to fight to be heard. We are, at long last, heard. As too are many other families, yet sadly because there has been no proper accountability for such a long time now, there are many more yet to come forwards.”
Janet Baker, Switalskis Solicitors – quote
“£2.8 million is the highest damages award in a stillbirth case, with legal fees for both sides the total cost to the NHS is likely to be over £3.5m. I believe that this is a cost which was unnecessary and could have been avoided if NUH had acknowledged responsibility for Harriet’s death straight away and had been open with Sarah and Jack.
They had suffered a psychiatric injury because of the shocking and traumatic way in which Harriet died but this was made significantly worse by the protracted failure of NUH to acknowledge responsibility for Harriet’s death and the psychiatric injuries caused to Sarah and Jack.
Sarah and Jack now suffer from ongoing depression and PTSD and have been unable to work and their lives have been changed in a way in which no amount of money can ever compensate.”
