“Expert: Quicker care could have saved baby - Times Union” plus 4 more

Expert: Quicker care could have saved baby - Times Union
Auburn babysitter to be sentenced in shaken baby case - Syracuse Post-Standard
Parents are 'scarred' by baby death - Ananova
Couple receive £160,000 over hospital's baby blunders - Daily Telegraph
Baby in DOCS' care 'horrifically' injured - Adelaide Now

Expert: Quicker care could have saved baby - Times Union

Posted: 13 Oct 2009 11:35 AM PDT

TROY -- A specialist in pediatrics testified this morning that 4-month-old Matthew Thomas, whose father is accused of killing him, could have survived had the family gotten him to the hospital sooner.

''He was an extremely sick boy when he came to the hospital,'' said Dr. Carole Jenny of the Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I.

''Had they had got him to the hospital the night before when there was first signs of difficulty breathing he probably could have been saved,'' continued Jenny, an expert who reviewed the case for prosecutors.

Jenny was among the last witnesses the Rensselaer County District Attorney's office called as prosecutors sought to convince a trial jury to convict 27-year-old Adrian Thomas. Thomas is charged with murder for allegedly throwing the baby down hard on a bed over three separate days in September 2008. Prosecutors said he was venting anger at the infant's mother, Willhemina Hicks.

According to trial testimony, Thomas and Hicks said the boy was having trouble breathing the night of Sept. 20, 2008, and talked of taking him to the hospital but instead decided to take him the next morning. That morning Hicks, who was unaware of Thomas' alleged abuse, found the baby unresponsive in his crib and called 911. He was declared brain dead shortly after arriving at the hospital.

Hicks dabbed tears through much of the medical testimony about her son.

Prosecutors are expected to rest soon and defense attorney Ingrid Effman plans to put other medical experts on the stand.

Effman told jurors in opening arguments that sepsis, a serious bacterial infection of the blood, caused Matthew's death and could have also caused the swelling of the brain.

The trial before Judge Andrew Ceresia continues this afternoon.

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Auburn babysitter to be sentenced in shaken baby case - Syracuse Post-Standard

Posted: 13 Oct 2009 07:32 AM PDT

Be interesting to see what her sentence would have been if she assaulte a judge, instead of a child.

The deal's done, but it would be good for parents, as well as her probation officer, to know what she will be doing when she's not in jail...when she violated the child care law twice, there's reason to believe she would do it again, and the trouble is there's no practical way for most parents to find out. In contrast, California has Trustline, a simple way for a parent to check on a provider's record.

The DA makes a good point about licensed child care providers. At least, OCFS now including information about the causes, consequences and prevention of shaken baby syndrome as part of their licensing requirements. And a study in 2005 found that inflicted injuries are 20 times more likely in settings where there is just one provider than in licensed child care centers. Of course, less risk doesn't mean absolute safety. Parents should ask what their caregivers know about the vulnerability of young children to inflicted head injuries, and how the caregiver will cope with frustration (and every caregiver will get frustrated...).

Hopefully, the DA will provide an opportunity for this person to do some SBS education to meet her community service requirement. The best way to learn about something is to teach someone else....

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Parents are 'scarred' by baby death - Ananova

Posted: 13 Oct 2009 11:43 AM PDT

A south Wales couple who received 160,000 compensation after their baby son died as a result of critical delays during his birth have said they were "mentally scarred" by the ordeal.

Johanne Rees, the mother of baby Arun, said she believed she would have had better care if she had given birth in her partner's home country of India.

And she said she had still not been reassured by the hospital which treated her that lessons had been learned from the tragedy.

Midwives at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW), Cardiff, failed to spot Ms Rees's unborn child was in distress. One doctor even rejected the idea that she had gone into labour, saying she simply needed the toilet.

Baby Arun was born prematurely in November 2005 having suffered fatal brain damage.

Ms Rees said she and her partner, Krishna Govekar, were not told the extent of the damage until five days later. They took the decision to turn off Arun's life-support when he was 10 days old.

Ms Rees, of Penarth, said: "The tragedy is the other option was to have the baby in India, a Third World country where Krishna's sister went through a similar experience of a poorly child at 33 weeks.

"He got the best care and is now running around, which is a constant reminder of what we are missing."

Katie Norton, director of primary, community and mental health services at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said: "I want to apologise again unreservedly on behalf of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board for the distress that Ms Rees and Mr Govekar have experienced and offer our sincere condolences to them.

"This was an exceptional and difficult case and we have worked with the staff to learn lessons."

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Couple receive £160,000 over hospital's baby blunders - Daily Telegraph

Posted: 13 Oct 2009 10:38 AM PDT

Published: 10:59AM BST 13 Oct 2009

Midwives at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW), Cardiff, failed to spot the unborn child of Johanne Rees was in distress.

One doctor even rejected the idea that she had gone into labour, saying she simply needed the toilet.

Baby Arun was born in November 2005 having suffered fatal brain damage.

The decision to turn off his life-support was taken 10 days later.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, formerly Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, apologised unreservedly today, insisting lessons had been learned.

But Irwin Mitchell solicitors, which acted for Ms Rees and her partner Krishna Govekar, are concerned the health board initially refused to admit any wrongdoing.

They now want the hospital to prove that it has learned lessons from the tragedy.

The baby's parents said today they feared that the death of their son was their last chance to have a family together.

Ms Rees, now aged 48 but who was 44 at the time, had already been identified as a high risk pregnancy. She was placed under the special care of the hospital's Fetal Medicine Unit after her waters had broken at 18 weeks.

She was admitted to UHW's maternity unit on November 19 2005 suffering severe abdominal pains.

But for more than two hours midwives failed to monitor her labour properly and missed that CTG heart readings clearly showed her baby was in distress.

''I just couldn't understand why they weren't doing anything to help me and my baby,'' Ms Rees, of Penarth, south Wales, said today.

''At my last antenatal visit I was told my baby was breech and I would need a caesarean section. It was a 'no brainer' - I knew my baby needed to be delivered urgently.

''I was screaming in agony and begging the midwives to get my baby out but they just left me.

''I couldn't believe it when a doctor arrived and said I wasn't ready to deliver, but had probably eaten something that had disagreed with me and to try going to the toilet instead.''

It was only after her condition was reviewed by a second doctor 90 minutes later that action to perform an emergency caesarean was taken.

Arun Rees Govekar was born in the early hours of 19 November 2005 and was immediately taken to the Special Care Baby Unit.

Ms Rees's partner Krishna flew to the UK from his home in Goa only to learn on arrival that his son was effectively brain dead.

Ms Rees added: ''After the upset of an earlier miscarriage, we were both so thrilled when I became pregnant again.

''Losing Arun has completely devastated us both and it's difficult to come to terms with his loss even now.''

Guy Forster, a medical negligence expert with Irwin Mitchell Solicitors, said: "Although baby Arun was premature he was well developed and experts have confirmed that in all likelihood he would have survived had the staff taken appropriate action.

"When a baby becomes distressed during labour, every minute is vital and any delay can be potentially fatal.

"Sadly, the obstetric staff took more than two hours to decide that a caesarean section was needed and by the time baby Arun was born he had been starved of oxygen and had suffered irreversible brain damage.

"Immediately following the tragedy, Johanne made a complaint to the Trust but they failed to acknowledge that her labour had not been properly managed."

He said that a local coroner had initially decided that an inquest into the death was unnecessary.

When he was persuaded to overturn that decision the then Health Trust had given evidence insisting all care had been appropriate.

"It is only as a result of taking legal action that the Trust has finally admitted that Arun should have been delivered earlier and that, had that occurred, he would have survived.

"Johanne and Krishna have received no apology for a tragedy which was totally avoidable and this is something we are now demanding from the Trust.

We have also had no reassurance that hospital procedures have changed or that the staff concerned have been retrained.

"For Johanne and Krishna this case has never been about the money but about ensuring that lessons have been learned, as they do not want any other couple to go through the tragedy they have experienced."

Katie Norton, director of Primary, Community and Mental Health Services at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said: "I want to apologise again unreservedly on behalf of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board for the distress that Ms Rees and Mr Govekar have experienced and offer our sincere condolences to them.

"This was an exceptional and difficult case and we have worked with the staff to learn lessons.

"Whenever there is a poor outcome for patients, we conduct an internal investigation with the staff involved and this then informs the response to a complaint.

"We responded immediately to the complaint from Ms Rees and apologised at the time for the loss of Arun and for the distress caused as she and Mr Govekar had to revisit the events of his birth.

"Patient safety is a high priority and the directorate of obstetrics and gynaecology is continually striving to improve services to ensure a good outcome for mothers and babies.

"Staff in the department undertake training around managing emergency situations and fetal monitoring.

"Training is reviewed annually based on national policy and from lessons learned during the year.

"If Ms Rees and Mr Govekar have outstanding concerns we would be happy to meet with them and talk through any issues they would like to raise."

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Baby in DOCS' care 'horrifically' injured - Adelaide Now

Posted: 13 Oct 2009 07:03 AM PDT

A BABY girl has brain injury and suffered two broken legs since being put in the care of relatives after DOCS took her from a loving foster family.

In one of the worst Department of Community Services failures since the starvation death of seven-year-old "Ebony" two years ago, the baby was left fighting for life in June, The Daily Telegraph.

Ebony is just one of an unknown number of children that DOCS hands back to relatives in blind adherence to the belief that the child is better off remaining in the family. The policy has come under fire from experts who argue it is not always the safest option.

DOCS admitted yesterday that, despite dire warnings contained in a DOCS review of Ebony's murder which clearly stated that case workers overlook problems in their desire to return children, she was given back to relatives.

The horrifically injured nine-month-old, who can be known only as "Chloe", was removed from her mother days after her birth.

She thrived with a foster carer in Western Sydney and was taken on weekly visits to see her mother who was in Silverwater jail.

But in March, DOCS caseworkers insisted Chloe, who has another sibling in state care, be moved to Lismore to live with relatives.

Police are investigating whether her horrific injuries were caused by violent shaking and detectives from a joint investigation response team were working on the case.

A DOCS spokeswoman said Chloe was rushed to Lismore hospital in June and then flown to Brisbane.

She is now back in Sydney and DOCS said her new foster family was being supported in "meeting the baby's medical needs".

The spokeswoman said the family members who took the baby were subjected to police checks and checks by the NSW Commission for Children and Young People. DOCS will now apply to a court to have custody of the girl until she is 18.

Opposition community services spokeswoman Pru Goward said the Government should review poor outcomes to determine whether DOCS caseworkers should be criminally investigated for malpractice. "DOCS are just careless.

They are so absorbed with returning children to their families that they don't give the child the right to protection," she said.

"It is such an obvious dereliction of duty. Somebody's head should roll."

Ms Goward said the prospect of punishment for caseworkers could provide better outcomes.

But Community Services Minister Linda Burney rejected the threat of criminal action against case workers.

She said all placements were considered carefully and on the grounds of safety. A desire to keep children with their families would not change, Ms Burney said.

When it was put to her that baby Chloe's life-threatening injuries were caused in June in Lismore while in family care and not when she had been safe with a foster carer in Sydney months earlier, she replied: "You just don't know that."

Ms Burney said The Daily Telegraph could find a story a day about DOCS but the good work for the 16,000 children in care was overlooked.

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