Two health professionals whose daughter died during labour after a series of hospital failures have called for coroners to be given power to investigate stillbirths. Sarah Hawkins and her husband Jack said that it was “absolutely ridiculous” that baby deaths in England and Wales only merited the independent scrutiny of a coroner’s court if the child was alive when born. Their daughter, Harriet, died in April last year, at 37 weeks, after errors by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, including repeatedly denying Mrs Hawkins admission to hospital and failing to declare an obstetric emergency. Mrs Hawkins was in labour for five days and after being told the baby was dead had to wait nine hours before Harriet was delivered. Both worked for the trust, she…

Source: The Times October 06, 2017 23:04 UTC