"Wanting answers from the hospital"

My partner and I have recently gone through and are still going through a horrible ordeal losing our son and having to deal with KEMH – WA’s only referral centre for high-risk, complex pregnancies. I’m writing this as we want answers as to why our son was so damaged at birth, and why the hospital’s policy of “open disclosure” has not, as yet, given us any clear answers - despite his death occurring on the 29th November 2017.

Our son was born on the 26th November 2017 and died 3 days later on the 29th at KEMH. He was 31 weeks, 2 days gestation and was completely healthy, as was the placenta, as was I. I am a high-risk patient, having had 2 pre-term labours previously, at which my first child died shortly after birth (26 weeks gestation). All 3 of my births have required emergency c-sections.

2 weeks after my son’s death, we attended a meeting at the hospital to find out what had happened that night. We were told that the placenta was cut into during a routine c-section and that there was a ‘delayed delivery’. We were told there was a delay by the junior registrar to ask for help and a delay by a senior registrar to provide assistance. We were also told that the Consultant on that night didn’t know a junior registrar was doing the c-section as it was assumed the senior registrar would be. Our son was so bruised and damaged. We left the hospital with no baby, with no discharge papers provided and no medical follow up - 3 nights after I had my c-section.

A Root Cause Analysis of the incident has been conducted, yet we are still waiting for a date to be set for the release of the Report. Originally we were told the process would take 28 days, but it has taken much longer. We have asked for a schedule associated with the release of the report so that we can plan ahead for this and our other commitments over the next period?

The hospital’s handling of its “open disclosure” process has been disappointing and we have been left with many unanswered questions.

As victims of a tragic, yet preventable death, we are struggling to understand who is actually supporting and representing us under the State’s Health Service? We seem to be battling this ordeal alone and feel very isolated from the support and access to health services generally experienced by those living closer to Perth. We will continue to ask and seek answers to our questions for an incident we believe should never had occurred.