Medical Negligence
‘Speaking up is important – but it is the duty of medical professionals to deliver the care patients need’
Katie Fowler and Rob Miller’s daughter Abigail died at only two days old due to the failings of the maternity team at the Royal Sussex County Hospital to deliver appropriate triage to Katie when she was in labour.
After four calls to the Maternity Assessment Unit to inform the team of Katie’s worsening condition, Katie went into cardiac arrest during the taxi journey to the hospital. Abigail was delivered in the hospital waiting room and Katie herself almost died. She was woken from her coma to say goodbye to her daughter.
Here, Katie and Rob share their experience of how traumatic is it not to be listened to and why they do not believe lessons are being learned
How significant do you consider the problem to be of medical professionals not listening to patients?
Medical professionals not listening to patients seems to be a significant problem - it certainly was for us, and for lots of other families we've spoken to since. Particularly in maternity, the consequences of that can be devastating.
What seems like a 'normal' birth or pregnancy can quickly become dangerous and medical professionals need to actively listen to what expectant mums and their partners are telling them - they are likely to know or sense when there is a problem, even if they don't necessarily know what it is.
It’s frightening to hear how often families are let down by maternity services. I would say try to use that knowledge to your advantage - know to trust your instinct and know that medical professionals can get it wrong.
What do you think the main reasons were for you being given such poor care in your own devastating experience?
We know that there are problems across the maternity services where our daughter was born - we have spoken to many other families since that have suffered similarly awful outcomes and so there is clearly something more at play than individual staff mistakes.
In all cases, the overarching theme is not listening to families when they are raising concerns - and also normalising symptoms that were actually indicative of much more serious complications. Perhaps an assumption that things will work out OK - but in our case and many others, this was very far from accurate. I think the fact that so many families - both local to us and nationally - have continued to suffer deaths and serious injuries to babies and mums, demonstrates that "not listening" extends beyond the event itself.
Parents are told what happened was rare, which isolates them, minimises the Trust's duty of care and leads to a culture that does not promote learning or individual responsibility. Families are not heard, so learning from previous tragic incidents or "maternity scandals" is not being absorbed, either by individual Trusts or regulatory bodies.
What do you think medical professionals are not doing when it comes to listening to / believing patients?
I think they are not listening and watching closely enough for signs that things are going wrong. They hear what is said and slot it into how labour and birth "should" progress, rather than considering other possibilities.
There is a reason most women now give birth in a hospital setting - it is so that if things do go wrong, medical assistance is close by. So there is an understanding that birth can be dangerous and medical assistance might be required, but for some reason it isn't always picked up on and this can lead to the absolute worst outcome.
It is very hard to speak up for yourself in a healthcare environment - but how important is it that patients, or their families / advocates, do so?
It is important - but it is also important to say that just raising your concerns, asking questions, saying you feel unwell, should be enough. It is not up to patients to ensure they get the care they need - it is the responsibility of medical staff.
We hear stories of absolute tragedy in maternity services all too often, with the same themes occurring time and again - are any lessons being learned?
No, we don't believe they are. The government has said numerous times it knows what the problems with maternity are, but they haven't made any changes to improve things. They've not even implemented all of the findings of the Ockenden Report yet. The problems in maternity care are complex and deep rooted, and until that is acknowledged and the issues are fully investigated, families will continue to suffer.
If you could make any recommendations to medical professionals in how to interact with and best support patients, what would they be?
Don't assume symptoms are normal if you can't be 100 per cent sure. Don't rely on phone calls to assess women in labour.
Is there anything you know now you wish you had known in your own situation?
I wish I had known that medical staff can make the wrong call. I wish I had understood that there were serious problems at the maternity unit where we had our daughter and that we could have chosen to have her somewhere else.
