A mum is celebrating the birth of her Christmas miracle after she was incorrectly told that her baby had perished in the womb.
Hannah Cole, 27, was admitted to Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI) after her waters broke prematurely at 20 weeks.
Doctors told her the following day that the baby had died after they couldn’t detect a heartbeat and booked Hannah Cole in for an induced delivery, but a gut instinct that her son was still alive motivated Hannah to ask the hospital for one last scan and that was when doctors discovered a heartbeat again.
Oakley Cole-Fowler was finally delivered at just 24 weeks and three days on October 30 weighing 780 grams.
Hospital bosses have apologised for the pain and stress caused to the family.
Hannah Cole said it had been stressful and up and down, and that her son has been in ICU but that he’s been absolutely brilliant, and she said that she’s just relieved because it’s been a rollercoaster and that he was her Christmas miracle.
Oakley is set to be in the hospital until at least his actual expected date of February 9, 2023.
Hannah Cole, from Wibsey, West Yorkshire, described Oakley as a little fighter and said it’s been a rollercoaster few months.
Little Oakley had an operation when he was only eight days old after being diagnosed with Necrotising enterocolitis, where tissues in the intestine become inflamed and die.
He also had a stoma bag fitted and faces additional surgeries next spring.
Hannah Cole said that hopefully, they will be able to bring him home in a couple of months and that she feels a bit lost at the moment because he’s not at home.
The young mother explained that while Oakley was once on a ventilator, he’s now breathing without any help and has come on leaps and bounds, and she added that she can’t wait to get him home so that they can be a normal family.
Hannah Cole has complained to BRI about the treatment she encountered during her pregnancy with Oakley.
Bradford Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust confirmed an investigation of the circumstances around her scans in October has now ended, and a spokesman said that they had completed their investigation which was now being shared with Ms Cole.
Sadly, these stories of inaccurate diagnoses are becoming more prevalent. Nothing beats a mother’s instinct though, and good on her for following her instincts, it just goes to show how NHS standards have declined.
The problem is medicine isn’t an exact science, and doctors aren’t always right – they’re not Gods and sometimes all that they can hope for is a successful outcome.
But I wonder how many were lied to re this? After all, the market for fetal tissue is extremely lucrative, and you couldn’t make this up even if you wanted to, the NHS is in a mess, and the NHS almost killed poor Oakley, and heads should roll because these types of traumas affect the entire family, and the mother scarred for life, and this medical negligence should be challenged in court to prevent reoccurrence.
This is a fight worth fighting for because any child is an amazing miracle, and the parents of an unborn child should always question, question, question.
This is just not good enough, and it’s completely insane in this day and age with all the technology we have. There will probably be a cover-up of this gross incompetence and I truly hope that whoever’s responsible for this loses their job.
In any job, if you do something that’s considered gross incompetence you would get fired, and this should be no different, simple!
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 