A Leeds couple are taking legal action after their son was born with brain damage and cerebral palsy.
Seb Collins was born in Leeds General Infirmary three weeks late and the family believe he was "starved" of oxygen in his mum's womb which lead to several birthing problems. When his mum Harriet went to her 35 week scan, doctors noticed he had a condition called intermittent end diastolic flow in one of the arteries.
The condition could mean that Seb would not have been receiving all of the oxygen and nutrients he required. But his mum went full-term with Seb being delivered at 40 weeks.
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After he was born, Seb had to be resuscitated and spent five days on a ventilator. He has since been diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Seb also has several disabilities including motor and speech difficulties and needs additional support at school.
Following his diagnosis aged three, Harriet and husband Adam instructed expert medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to investigate and help him access the lifetime specialist care and therapies he is likely to require.
The couple, both 35, now want "lessons to be learnt" and have called out Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for what they believe is a duty of care. They believe if their four-year-old had been born at 37 weeks, he would have "entirely avoided" his brain injury.
Harriet said: “It’s still hard to talk about what happened around the end of my pregnancy. We assumed that because Seb was being closely monitored that there would be no problems.
“But as soon as Seb was delivered I knew something wasn’t right and seeing him in the first few days on a ventilator was particularly hard.
“When we got the diagnosis of cerebral palsy for Seb, it was a real mix of emotions. Relief that it was recognised as something and not our imagination, fear and sadness of what it might mean for his future, hope that he would improve but also thankfulness for wonderful friends and family who would support us.
Rachelle Mahapatra, the expert medical negligence lawyer representing the family, said: “Sadly Seb suffered devastating but avoidable injuries which will continue to affect him and his family for the rest of their lives
“While we welcome the Trust’s co-operation and apology, it’s now vital that lessons are learned to improve maternity safety for other families.
“In the meantime we continue to support the family to ensure that Seb can now access the specialist care, therapies and support he's likely to require to live as independently as possible in the future
“Seb’s case is a stark reminder of the life-changing consequences families can be left to face because of care failings and we continue to campaign for improvements in maternity safety."
Dr Phil Wood, Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: "Our Chief Executive wrote to the family at the beginning of the year to express our sincere apologies in relation to the care Mrs Collins received.
"We are extremely saddened for the impact this has had on Mrs Collins and her family, and in particular Sebastian. I want to reassure our patients and their families that we have undertaken a full investigation into the care offered to Mrs Collins, the outcome of which has led to significant learning and improvements in care and safety.
"Over the past few years we have put in place a number of changes, including employing a Consultant lead for the fetal assessment unit, training more midwife sonographers, instigating regular clinical audits and reviews of scans and holding teaching sessions about baby heartbeat listening devices, and their interpretation.
"We also launched a new dedicated consultant-led small baby clinic that cares for small babies prior to 37 weeks and reviews babies with abnormal heartbeat audio before 37 weeks, even in the context of normal growth. I would like to reiterate our apologies to Mrs Collins and her family and we wish them the very best."
