A YOUNG mother has told how her newborn son almost died after she claimed mistakes were made during her labour.
Louise Huart, 22, says her son, Keegan-James, faced a battle for life after suffering distress in the womb while she was giving birth.
As he recovered after being transferred to Hull Women and Children's Hospital, Louise was told a member of staff from Scarborough Hospital had called to see if her baby "was dead yet".
Now recovering at her parents' home in Driffield, Louise claims midwives should have realised her son was in life-threatening distress during her labour and he should have been delivered by caesarean section sooner.
"It is absolutely appalling what happened to us," Louise said, cradling her son, now ten weeks old, in her arms. "We are both lucky to be here."
Louise, a nursery nurse, was at home in Bridlington with her partner, Leo Parker, 23, when she went into labour and headed to Scarborough General Hospital when her contractions were just two minutes apart just before midnight on May 13.
She received gas and air, pethidine and an epidural before her waters broke at 3.30am.
However, her waters were thick with meconium, a sign that the baby could be in distress.
A monitor showed her baby's heart rate was dipping but a doctor was called into the delivery room by the midwives and said the baby was fine.
By 7.30am, after her epidural had been topped up twice, Louise's contractions stopped completely.
"He had just given up," she said.
For two hours, Louise was encouraged by the midwives to try to deliver her baby without contractions before she was eventually taken to theatre for a caesarean section.
She headed into theatre at about 10.30am but after she was given a spinal injection, Louise struggled to breath and became unconscious.
When she finally came round, hospital staff told Louise she had suffered an asthma attack. "I'd had asthma as a child and I'm registered but I don't use any inhalers and I don't even go for reviews," she said.
Keegan-James was transferred to Hull Women and Children's Hospital, followed by Louise the next day, and she finally met her son for the first time when he was 39 hours old.
"Staff in Hull were fantastic," she said. "We were in for nine days and on the day we were being discharged, one of the nurses told me someone from Scarborough had called the hospital to see if Keegan-James was 'dead yet'. They hadn't expected him to survive, obviously."
Louise has just learned how close she came to losing her son after she was called to Scarborough Hospital to go through her delivery notes.
Keegan-James was born with meconium aspiration syndrome, when a baby breathes in a mixture of amniotic fluid and meconium, and hypovolemic shock, which is severe blood and fluid loss meaning the heart is unable to pump enough blood to the body.
He also had suspected sepsis, which is an infection of the blood, pulmonary hypertension of the newborn and hypoxicischemic encephalopathy, when the brain is deprived of oxygen.
Louise has contacted a solicitor and is now writing a letter of complaint to Scarborough Hospital.
Liz Ross, head of midwifery at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We were sorry to hear Ms Huart had concerns regarding the care provided at Scarborough Hospital during the birth of her son.
"A meeting has taken place with Ms Huart to go through the events of the birth and we are disappointed to hear she was unhappy with the outcome of this meeting.
"We are committed to being open and honest with our patients. We offered Ms Huart the opportunity to come back and speak to us at any time. We would encourage her to do this so we can continue to work with her to address the issues she has raised here."
