Hospital fined £100,000 for professional negligence
A hospital trust has been fined £100,000 after a new mother died due the gross professional negligence of the hospital staff.
The 30 year old woman died of a heart attack, one hour after giving birth to a healthy baby.
The cause for the untimely heart attack was an epidural anaesthetic that was mistakenly injected into her veins.
Ironically, she worked as a theatre nurse at the same hospital where she was a victim of medical negligence, the Great Western hospital in Swindon.
She had to be fed a saline solution to help her blood pressure but the powerful anaesthetic was injected instead.
An inquest ruled that the woman was unlawfully killed after finding that the storage and retrieval of drugs at the hospital was "chaotic". The court heard that both substances had similar packaging.
Sentencing the Great Western hospital NHS foundation trust, Mr Justice Clarke said it was gross professional negligence.
Her widower has now returned to the couple's native Philippines with their son, where he expressed relief that the case was finally at an end.
"I would like to thank the HSE for bringing this prosecution and I am pleased with its outcome," he added.
His injury lawyers said that the husband has received a "substantial" out of court settlement.
Updated on 21/05/2010