Heartbroken mother tells of baby death
A heartbroken mother this afternoon relived the moment she arrived at hospital only to be told her newborn daughter had died 90 minutes earlier.
Rhiannon Davies choked back tears as she told a Shropshire inquest how she found out her baby Kate Seren Stanton-Davies had failed to survive after being transferred from Ludlow to Birmingham's Heartlands Hospital.
Kate had lived for just six hours and Miss Davies claims a catalogue of errors by ambulance and health staff lay behind the tragedy in 2009.
Miss Davies, 38, of Dahn Drive, Ludlow, told the inquest in Bridgnorth she learned the truth about her child the moment she finally arrived at Heartlands. She said: "I was met by a nurse and I said 'she's dead, isn't she?' I just knew she had gone."
The hearing was told Kate's death had initially been put down to natural causes, but investigations had been reopened after representations by the baby's family.
Kate was born at Ludlow Community Hospital on March 1, 2009. Miss Davies said some weeks prior to birth Kate had stopped moving and she did not feel the situation had been taken seriously by staff at the hospital or the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
