Trust settles baby negligence case

An NHS trust which hit the headlines over its quality of care has paid compensation to the family of a boy after staff failed to remove a tube inserted in his windpipe to help him breathe following his birth.

Clare Thomas described how her son Owen coughed up the tube after she slapped his back to help him breathe when he started to choke and turned blue 10 days after the birth in February 2007 at Stafford Hospital.

The six-inch piece of PVC had been inserted after one of Owen's shoulders became stuck during the delivery, causing him to need help with his breathing. But doctors failed to remove the endotracheal tube when he began to breathe properly on his own again.

Following the incident, the family took legal action against Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which confirmed the case had been settled with an undisclosed sum in clinical negligence compensation.

In 2010, an inquiry into the quality of care at Stafford General Hospital between 2005 and March 2009 highlighted "shocking failures".

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