A woman was left wondering whether her husband cheated on her whilst she was pregnant when a medic wrongly diagnosed her newborn with an STD.
Jenna Barnes, 43, took her newborn baby boy, Fletcher, to hospital for a check up when his eyes became “gunky and stuck together”.
He underwent tests to determine what was causing the issue and Jenna claims a midwife told her the child had tested positive for gonorrhoea.
Jenna says she was told the infection would have been passed on by a parent before the baby was born – leading her to believe her husband, Chris, 45, the frontman for a tribute rock band, may have been unfaithful.
Knowing she was not to blame, Jenna confronted Chris, who insisted he hadn’t strayed either.
Thankfully before the pair broke up or consulted divorce lawyers, a flustered midwife revealed she had given Jenna the wrong results, and Fletcher did not have gonorrhoea.
The boy had a bacterial infection instead and he was treated with antibiotics and eye drops, which cleared up the ailment within days.
Jenna, a lingerie and costume designer, from Manchester, said: “The midwife asked: ‘Have you been tested?’ and I said: ‘For what?’
“She told me: ‘It’s coming up that your baby has gonorrhoea.’
“I was gobsmacked when she told me, I was lost for words.
“I instantly started Googling the illness and knew having sex was the only way of contracting the disease.
“Chris and I were relieved when we discovered it was an honest mistake, but in our heart of hearts we knew it was wrong.”
Fletcher was born on 30th August 2022 at 5.40am weighing 7lbs 9oz.
The newborn started experiencing symptoms of an eye infection when he was just one day old and, after four days, Jenna’s midwife recommended she called 111 to get an out-of-hours GP appointment.
Due to Fletcher’s young age, the GP did not want to prescribe antibiotics and recommended she rubbed breastmilk on his eyes with cotton wool pads, before sending her back to the hospital for tests, where they swabbed Fletcher’s eyes.
The mother-of-five said: “They swabbed his eyes and told me they would call me back with the results.”
She received the shocking, but erroneous, results of the test the same day via telephone. However, a meeting with the same midwife had been scheduled for later the same day so it was only a few hours before Jenna was able to double-check the result.
Jenna’s husband, Chris, was on tour in Canada at the time of his baby’s birth.
Jenna said: “Strangers always grill me and ask how I cope with Chris being in a band and on tour where there’s so much temptation.
“Up until that moment, I had never doubted his loyalty once.
“I still trusted him 100 per cent but did start to think what on earth had gone on.”
After revealing the diagnosis on the phone, she said Chris responded: “How the f**k has that happened?”
“I know you’ve not done anything, you’re at home with five kids.”
Even their son, George, 13, said: “You know dad would never cheat, he won’t even go to a strip club.”
“Chris is more into tea and slippers than coke and strippers,” Jenna added.
Jenna started worrying Chris would think she had been unfaithful when she spent nine weeks working at Pinewood Studios, Slough, Berkshire, before becoming pregnant with Fletcher in December 2021.
She even pleaded with Chris and said: “Look if you have been unfaithful, I don’t mind, I just need to know the truth.”
She added: “As soul mates I’d like to think we would work through infidelity together.”
The couple had both calmed down and talked it through they came to the conclusion it must have been a mistake. The midwife involved later apologised.
Chris said: “I am admittedly the most boring man in rock ‘n’ roll. I’m a vegetarian, I barely drink, and I don’t smoke.
“I was confused but I never doubted Jenna’s innocence.
“I was worried she would think I had been out liaising with the ladies, but everyone who knows me knows it’s not in my nature.
“After the initial shock we knew it must have been a mistake and that somebody had got the paperwork wrong and that was confirmed by the midwife later on.
“Everyone on tour was laughing because it was me this happened to – one who is up first and in bed first.
“We saw the funny side of it and bang our drums for the NHS, they’re only human and everyone makes mistakes.”
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said: “We are extremely apologetic for the oversight, sharing the incorrect result primarily although promptly rectified.
“This was a case of human error. We are glad mother and infant are both thriving and send them our best wishes for the future.”
SWNS
