Hospital Admits Malpractice in Fatal Forceps Delivery

A forceps delivery injury resulted in the death of a 26-hour old baby, a hospital representative admitted. During his birth in April of 2014, the baby suffered catastrophic head injuries caused by alleged delivery room malpractice.

Following the tragic death of the infant, an inquest was conducted, the results of which determined that the hospital deviated from the guidelines that apply to forceps deliveries. “Nobody should have to come home without their baby. You’ve got your car seat in the car. You’ve got your baby bag ready. And the baby’s not there,” said the mother of the baby in an interview with Manchester Evening News.

Hospital deviated from standard of care

In April of 2014, the mother was at 39 weeks gestation when she went into labor. She was admitted to Royal Oldham Hospital, which is located in Manchester, Australia. It is unknown why the delivery room staff initially decided that forceps were needed. However, the parents claimed that after the first failed attempt to deliver the baby boy with forceps, one of the doctors suggested trying an emergency C-section. If this doctor had not been overruled by another doctor in the delivery room, the baby’s fatal forceps delivery injury might have been prevented.

Instead, the doctor tried four more times to deliver with forceps. Since these attempts were unsuccessful, the doctors pushed the baby back into the womb so that they could perform a C-section. Shortly after birth, the baby began to bleed from his nose and mouth. He was taken to the intensive care unit, where he died from his forceps delivery injury within 26 hours of birth.

The inquest acknowledged that the baby boy died of his serious head injuries and that those injuries were caused by a botched forceps-assisted delivery. The inquest also determined that the doctors at Royal Oldham Hospital had deviated from the national guidelines. These guidelines direct obstetric staff to abandon the use of forceps if this technique is not successful after three attempts.

Parents advocate for change to protect newborns

The results of the inquest and the admission by the hospital are likely to be cold comfort for the parents, who have now become advocates for the welfare of newborns throughout the country. “Every day of your life you are living with a broken heart. That will never change, whether it’s one year or 50 years,” said the mother. The parents have called for a complete ban on the use of forceps and other potentially dangerous instruments in all deliveries. They have also filed a civil medical negligence lawsuit against Pennine Acute Trust, which runs the hospital.

Following the inquest, Pennine Acute Trust released a statement that read, in part, “The Trust takes these incidents very seriously and a thorough internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death has been undertaken… and steps have been put in place to prevent similar incidents from happening again.” Those steps included changing their guidelines to require delivery room staff to use forceps only once, should they decide that forceps are indeed needed. The national guidelines still call for abandoning the use of forceps after three failed attempts.

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