‘Justice coming for every baby’ – Ockenden families react to report

The families affected by the UK’s biggest maternity scandal have said “justice is coming for every baby”.

Many babies’ deaths could have been prevented at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, but there are also parents, such as the Rev Charlotte Cheshire, who live with children who survived with severe disabilities.

Ms Cheshire, 44, from Newport, Shropshire, says her son Adam, now 11, looked unwell after his birth in 2011, but her concerns were dismissed by staff at the trust.

When it was finally discovered that he had Group B Strep infection, he was taken to intensive care where he stayed for almost a month.

Ms Cheshire, who is suing the trust, says her son has been left with multiple, severe health problems and should have received treatment much earlier.

She told the PA news agency: “He has multiple complex disabilities because of what happened to him at the hospital.

“He had meningitis, but my contention is they didn’t pick up on it or act on it soon enough.

“You could argue I’m one of the lucky ones, because my baby came home when so many others didn’t.

“But in a different way it’s changed my life forever, and it’s changed his – because he is hearing-impaired, visually impaired… and has violent, challenging behaviour.

“Although he turned 11 on Friday, mentally he’s about four. The odds of that changing to a significant degree are highly unlikely.

“As much as I wish it wasn’t the case, I am now having to head in the direction of seeking a residential placement for him – a residential school that is.

“When he’s happy, when he’s calm, he’s gorgeous, he’s a delight and he’s wonderful, and all of the things you’d expect a mother to say.

“But when he’s overwhelmed, I wear the bruises.

“So to say it’s changed our lives immeasurably, well, our lives will never be the same because he’s never going to live independently. It’s a lifetime thing.”

Despite Ms Cheshire’s son surviving despite the poor maternity care at the hospital, 201 babies are known to have died.

Julie Rowlings, whose daughter Olivia died after 23 hours of labour following a consultant’s use of forceps, said she wanted somebody from the trust to talk to her face to face about her case.

She told PA: “I would like somebody from the trust to sit face to face with me, and talk to me. They’ve never done that.

“They’ve apologised, via media, they’ve apologised to all the families via media, but they’ve never sat down with the families.

“I want them to apologise face to face for what they put us through.

“I’d like them to apologise for ignoring what we were trying to tell them at the time. It would go a long way.”

Reacting to the Ockendon report on Wednesday, Mrs Rowlings said: “I am emotional today, because obviously Olivia was mentioned in Donna’s speech, she’s mentioned in the report.

“So I feel like after 20 years, my daughter finally has a voice.

“The thing I like about this report is it’s not recommendations – it has to happen.

“So we need to be on top of it to make sure it happens.

“For every family out there, every family that’s come forward, this is for them.

“Justice is coming. For every baby, justice is coming.”

She continued: “If it gets people to question their care and to trust their instincts then it’s worth it.

“But I can’t see how this trust can ever get away with this again, because I do think families will fight them now.

“They maybe wouldn’t have before, but they will now.”

Speaking about the potential for criminal charges in the case, Ms Cheshire told PA: “Even though we have no idea yet what the outcome will be, West Mercia Police are considering whether to bring charges against the hospital as well.

“They have taken our files as one of those to look into, and we have no answers yet, but even the police are looking at this so it’s pretty significant, to put it mildly.”