Gainsborough woman awarded £10,000 after part of placenta was left in her after birth at Lincoln hospital

A Gainsborough woman has been awarded a five-figure damages settlement after taking legal action because a piece of placenta was left inside her after giving birth.
Lincoln County HospitalLincoln County Hospital
Lincoln County Hospital

The 30-year-old mother suffered an infection, blood loss and pain which made it difficult to bond with her baby girl.

Despite telling midwives she felt something was wrong at the time, she was discharged from Lincoln County Hospital and assured there had been no complications.

However the woman, who had experienced a similar issue following a previous birth, says the pain caused her to struggle with her new baby at home.

She said: “It was hard because I couldn’t really do much, I felt bad because I needed family and friends to help look after my baby girl.

“I couldn’t hold her for very long because of the pain. I couldn’t bend down or pick her up to change her or anything like that. It felt like I lost a lot of bonding time with her when she was a baby.”

The woman had given birth on May 26, 2018 and the hospital notes stated that the placenta had been delivered five minutes after birth.

She suffered constant pains and bleeding and was reviewed at Scunthorpe General Hospital on June 12, when a scan confirmed a 6cm piece of placenta had been left inside her. She underwent surgery to remove it the next day but remained in pain and continued to lose blood.

A further scan on June 22 confirmed part of the placenta still remained, but she had to wait until August 20 for another operation, in which the remaining section was removed.

During the ordeal, which the woman said left her feeling ‘low’ and needing anti-depressant tablets, she says she became annoyed as her ‘concerns were ignored’.

She said: “When I was told I had to have another operation, as they hadn’t got all the placenta out the first time, I was annoyed and it left me having to go back in and be messed about with again. It was another delay when I was still in pain.

“When the scan showed the piece of placenta inside me I felt mad because I warned them after I gave birth that I had the same feeling that I’d had with my previous birth, when it also happened then.

“But I just got ignored and they were just saying ‘it’s normal, it’s fine’. Because I went through it previously I knew that my instincts were right, but all I kept getting told was ‘we’ve checked the placenta, it’s fine, there’s nothing there’.

“When I was on the wards and said I was in pain it felt like they just ignored me. I also told the midwife when she came a couple of days after I had been sent home that I’d lost loads of blood clots, but they just shrugged it off and said it was normal.

The woman instructed Hudgell Solicitors and a medical negligence claim was made against co-defendants the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Lincoln County Hospital, and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Scunthorpe General Hospital, relating to the care of both hospitals.

Sarah Colgrave, a solicitor in the Clinical Negligence team at Hudgell Solicitors, issued a list of allegations that she said “amounted to breaches of care on behalf of the NHS Trusts” and resulted in “unnecessary suffering” for the mother.

Overall liability was denied and the Trusts only collectively admitted to a breach of duty of care in relation to a delay in arranging the second surgery to remove the placenta.

However, having indicated an intention to take the case before a judge in court, the Trusts returned with a five-figure damages offer which was accepted by the woman.

Ms Colgrave said: “It was our case that had the midwife carried out a reasonable examination following the delivery of the placenta and noted the 6cm piece that was retained, a consultant obstetrician would have been called for advice and appropriate treatment carried out immediately to ensure its complete removal.

“We said this would have avoided three months of blood loss, pain, suffering and loss of amenity, the development of an infection, the exposure to three scans, surgical procedures, administration of three anaesthetics, and psychological damage by not being able to care for her new-born baby without the assistance of family and friends.

“Our instructed midwifery expert agreed that at times it can be difficult to identity small fragments of placenta membranes that may still be retained following delivery, and that these are not always visible to the naked eye or on scans. However, she maintained her opinion that not to recognise a piece of placenta measuring 6cm was a breach of duty of care.

“Furthermore, the mother having to undergo two procedures to remove the placenta was wholly unnecessary and a competent obstetrician should have removed all tissue during the first procedure.

“Given the strength of our evidence we invited the Trusts to re-assess the matter following their initial correspondence and told them we felt confident we would succeed in this claim if it went to court.

“We were pleased this resulted in a satisfactory settlement being offered to our client.”