Mum wins NHS payout after baby boy left permanently disabled following botched birth
This article contains content some readers may find upsetting
\The mum of a young boy who was left permanently disabled following problems during birth has been awarded a payment following legal action against the NHS.
Shanto Khaliquzzaman was left with life-long issues after doctors told his mother to take a warm bath instead of coming into the hospital.
The now-three year old was starved of oxygen, leaving him disabled from birth.
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His mum, 31-year-old Dilshad Sultana, called Birmingham Women’s Hospital at around 5:00pm on June 20, 2019. She told the medical staff that she’d been suffering with stomach pain and had noticed reduced movement from her baby.
They told her to have a bath and said that she should call back once her contractions were coming every three minutes.
At 10:30pm, when she arrived at the hospital, the midwifery staff then failed to detect a deteriorating heartbeat.
Shanto was born via emergency caesarean at 1:15am the following day, but needed resuscitation and had to spend 22 days on a ventilator in intensive care.
Now, he’s been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and is reliant on others for everything, being unable to walk, talk, or sit independently.
Dilshad, who lives in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands, appointed medical negligence to investigate after the diagnosis, and now Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust has admitted liability and made a voluntary interim payment, though the amount has not been disclosed.
There will be a final settlement once Shanto is older and the full extent of the care he’ll need for the rest of his life are established.
Dilshad, who also has a four-year-old daughter, said: “When I arrived at hospital I told the midwives that I couldn’t feel my baby move but they tried to reassure me that they were monitoring it.
"I knew something wasn’t quite right but it felt that they weren’t really listening to me. As the hours went by nothing was really done then I was suddenly told I was having a C-section.
"At that point it felt like everyone was in a rush. There were doctors and nurses but it was so quiet. When Shanto was born I immediately feared the worse. He looked very poorly and then I was told he was being taken to neo-natal intensive care.”
His birth had caused brain injury, cardiac arrest, and multiple brain hemorrhages, and he suffered seizures in intensive care.
After 10 days, the doctors tried to get him off the ventilators unsuccessfully, before discussing palliative care options.
However, he then began to breathe independently two weeks later.
Dilshad continued: “Seeing Shanto in intensive care fighting for his life was the hardest thing I think I’ll ever to have go through.
"All the family were hoping and praying he would somehow pull through. Palliative care was discussed but we had to give him every chance possible.
“We’re so grateful to have Shanto in our lives and so proud of the fight and determination he shows every day.
"While we have answers as to what happened to him, trying to come to terms with how Shanto won’t have the life we hoped for him is difficult.
“He’s three-years-old and is supposed to walk and talk, develop as a person, and cause mischief with his big sister. However, he can’t do any of that.
“I just hope that by speaking out I can help prevent other families having to go through what we have.”
The interim payment received will now help the family move into a home adapted for Shanto’s needs, and the trust has admitted that they failed to advise Dilshad to attend the hospital upon her initially calling.
Had she done so, he might have been delivered before the brain injuries.
Sara Burns, from lawyers Irwin Mitchell, said: “This is a tragic case which resulted in Shanto suffering devastating but avoidable injuries which will affect him and his family for the rest of his life.
“While we welcome the trust’s co-operation in this case, the family would rather not be in this position.
“What happened to Shanto is a stark reminder of the life-changing consequences families can be left to face because of maternity care failings.
“Every second counts when delivering babies in distress and it’s vital that lessons are learned so others don’t have to suffer the pain that this family have been through.
“We continue to campaign for improvements in maternity safety nationally.”
Tom Wood