Tuesday, September 8, 2009

This will make any mothers blood boil

I thought you should know, I cried whilst I wrote this. No-one should suffer the way this woman has.

It has been reported today that a mother had to watch her premature son die all because he was born 2 days too early.

Sarah Capewell, 23, had to live the nightmare every mother dreads whilst pregnant. She gave birth to her son Jayden 21 weeks and 5 days into her pregnancy.

Doctors at St James Paget Hospital in Gorleston, Norfolk refused to give Jayden the Intensive Care treatment he needed to survive.

This poor mother had only 2 hours with her son before he died in her arms last October.

Miss Capewell, of Great Yarmouth, said: 'When I asked about my baby's human rights, the attitude of the doctors seemed to be that he did not have any.

'They said before 22 weeks he was just a foetus.

So let me get this right. A woman gives birth to a child that she wants with all her heart and will love more than anything in the world, will probably die for this child is told that this baby has no human rights as it is just a foetus.

But a woman who has been raped or is pregnant and cannot cope if they have this child opts for an abortion before the foetus (hospitals words not mine) is 12 weeks is taking away the foetus' human rights.

Where does this poor woman stand. Fighting for her child, but being told by the people who are supposed to care and help save lives, that there is nothing they can do because he was born 2 days early is disgusting.

She said: 'Because I had not reached 22 weeks, they did not allow me injections to stop the labour or steroid injections to help mature the baby's lungs.'


Why not? She was 2 days off being 22 weeks and what the fuck does it matter?

Miss Capewell was told the baby was likely to be stillborn and as her contractions continued, a chaplain arrived to discuss bereavement and planning a funeral.



How not to fuck with peoples minds. When someone is going through something so traumatic, you stand by them and give them some sort of encouragement. Or so I thought.

'A midwife said he was breathing and had a strong heartbeat and described him as a "little fighter".

'I kept asking for the doctors but the midwife said, "They won't come and help, sweetie. Make the best of the time you have with him."'

Miss Capewell said she had to argue her right to receive birth and death
certificates which meant she could have a proper funeral.


How, how can someone in this profession treat a human being like this?

The medical guidance for NHS hospitals, limiting care of the most premature babies, was drawn up by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics in 2006.

The guidelines are clear: no baby below 22 weeks gestation should be resuscitated.

The latest major study on survival of premature babies shows that at 23 weeks, just 16 per cent will survive - a statistic which has barely changed in a decade.

But Miss Capewell said: 'After Jayden's death, I looked into other cases and I could not believe that one little girl, Amillia Taylor, is perfectly healthy after being born in Florida in 2006 at 21 weeks and six days - and Jayden was heavier than her.

'There are thousands of women who have experienced this.

'The doctors say the babies won't survive but how do they know if they are not giving them a chance?'

She said she had heard heartbreaking stories of babies who lived as long as five days in such circumstances.

'Women who went through it 10 years ago have phoned me up in tears. You can't get past it because no one tried.

'You feel you let your baby down and you are left with that guilt every single day. You feel you should have got out of that bed, you should have gone to another hospital.



I have to admit, I have always been against people changing laws because things have happened to their lives and they want people to suffer, just in case it happens to them, but I do think things need to be changed here and all the medical staff at the St James Paget Hospital that stood by and watched this helpless child die should all go up against the medical board.

They should be struck off.

6 comments:

Pat Nurse MA said...

"..all the medical staff at the St James Paget Hospital that stood by and watched this helpless child die ...."

I was 24 weeks pregnant when a consultant told me my son was "not viable" and I should wait for him to die.

When he left, the nurse whispered to me that I should demand to be taken to a bigger hospital nearby where the facilities, and my son's chances of survival, were greater - but not to mention to the consultant that she had told me.

When I insisted to be transfered, the consultant tried to scare me by saying that I could die "within 20 minutes" and not reach the destination. I still insisted and he had to give in.

Happily, thanks to that nurse, mother and son are doing fine - 16 years later. It's a shame there seems to be less of that kind around now.

Henry North London 2.0 said...

James Paget is known to be a nightmare place It now is confirmed...

The doctors were parroting the policy line The policy was written most likely by a nurse

The doctors just need reprogramming

That nurse is evil personified and should be removed

Barking Spider said...

The baby was a survivor and lasted for two hours without treatment. That he wasn't given at least a chance to live by the medical staff at James Paget Hospital is truly despicable.

Cases should be examined on individual merit with a large dose of common sense and experience.

Under this rotten government that approach no longer exists and has been reduced to box-ticking bureaucracy by callous people who haven't got a fucking clue what they're doing.

Screaming Banshee said...

Well said Barking Spider.

Everything has become so bad, I have had to take my daughter to the doctors today (she came back from her dads with bruises). To make sure it is known that the bruises have not come from me, I had to take her to the quacks and have them documented. She was then questioned on how she got them and when.

Old Holborn said...

My daughter was born at 28 weeks weighing 2 pounds.

The doctor asked me "what shall we do with the body when the child dies?"

"She can be buried alongside you" was my answer.

Screaming Banshee said...

And let me guess, your daughter is doing really well and growing strong.