By Dave Andrusko
Memory box: First-time mother Tracy Godwin, 34, cradled her newborn son Tom in her arms until he died.
In 2010, when Tracy Godwin, then 22 weeks pregnant, suddenly developed excruciating stomach pains, she immediately went to the hospital. The Daily Mail's Andrew Levy writes
"She was put in a private room at Southend Hospital and when staff told her the baby might arrive early she begged them to do everything they could to keep it alive. After three days a midwife broke her waters with what Miss Godwin believes was a large pair of scissors and she gave birth to her 1lb son shortly afterwards."
But despite her desperate pleas, Godwin was left alone to cradle her tiny son for 46 minutes until Tom stopped breathing "as staff ignored her desperate pleas for help." It was not until six weeks later that she learned it was the hospital's policy not to resuscitate babies born before 23 weeks.
Tom was 22 weeks and two days.
Now, four years later—and after the successful birth of a daughter who was also born premature— the hospital finally apologized and promised "to improve our internal policy for babies born prematurely," which, on the surface, does not guarantee they will care for future babies like Tom. It more likely means that staff will be ordered to tell mothers of the hospital's non-treatment policy.
Godwin described the traumatic experience to Levy:
"They put him in my arms and he cried and was wriggling around. I could feel him breathing and see his eyelashes and toes.
"'But I kept thinking, 'Where's the incubator?' We were begging the midwives to do something to help him but no one was saying anything. He was not stillborn, he was trying to live."
Although the hospital reached an unspecified agreement with Godwin in January, earlier this month the Coroner's office recorded that the baby died from natural causes and said failings in the care provided "did not affect the outcome."
Back in December 2012, we wrote about a similar situation in Great Britain but with a happier ending, courtesy of what can only be described as a miracle.
Part of the criteria for "viability" is that a preemie weigh at least one pound. Placed on the hospital scale, Maddalena, born early to Kate Douse and her husband Renato, weighed exactly one pound.
Only the baby didn't weigh 1 pound. Maddalena only seemed to weigh that much because a pair of scissors had accidentally been left on the scale! The doctors at Royal Sussex Hospital did not discover their "error," the Sun newspaper reported, until she was safely on the ventilator.
Source: NRL News
