Elliot Morris, from Godstone, Surrey, was born at East Surrey Hospital on 15 March, 2019. The pregnancy was routine, but he suffered a brain injury after going without oxygen during the birth.
Elliot’s parents, Alex and Nick, are campaigning for lessons to be learned to improve care for others in the future. They’re keeping a diary of Elliot’s progress with his disability on Instagram while our solicitors make a medical negligence claim on his behalf.
How It Happened
Elliot’s mum, Alex, went to hospital with irregular contractions on the evening of 14th March 2019. The second stage of labour was going slowly so staff gave her oxytocin to speed it up. They then sent her to the operating theatre to have a C-section.
Elliot was born in poor condition. He was pale, floppy and couldn’t breathe by himself. Staff intubated him and sent him to a resuscitation unit where he had a brain cooling treatment. During the C-section, Alex suffered a tear in her uterus and the surgical team accidentally cut her bladder.
Alex and Nick remember an atmosphere of panic and confusion in the operating theatre. The surgical staff disagreed about whether they were measuring Elliot’s heart rate or Alex’s, and had to bring in an ultrasound machine to confirm.
Elliot spent a month in hospital before he could go home. Doctors diagnosed him with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a type of brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen during birth.
HIE can lead to cerebral palsy but Elliot is still too young for a full diagnosis.
Investigations Start
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) published a report into Elliot’s care that identifies multiple failings by the staff at the East Surrey Hospital, including:
- Staff didn’t follow the correct procedure for the heartbeat-monitoring Cardiotocography (CTG) machines. This may have prevented them from noticing Elliot’s low heart rate sooner.
- Staff didn’t recognise the importance of earlier changes in Elliot’s heart rate, and didn’t react quickly enough.
- Staff didn’t do a risk assessment before attempting to induce labour with oxytocin. Oxytocin can increase the chance of tears for mothers like Alex who’ve already had C-sections in the past.
The HSIB has recommended how the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs East Surry Hospital, can improve their maternity care and prevent similar mistakes from happening again. Alex and Nick have also asked our solicitors to investigate. We asked the Trust for more details about Elliot’s birth, and whether more could or should have been done to avoid his injury.
The NHS trust admitted liability for Elliot’s injury, saying that staff should have delivered Elliot 39 minutes earlier than they did. He probably would have avoided a brain injury if they had. The Trust’s lawyers added that the Trust felt “profound regret for the shortcomings in care” and offered “sincere apologies”.
Anita Jewitt, a partner in our medical negligence team, is representing Alex and Nick in a claim against the Trust.
“Sadly, Elliot has suffered from a neurological injury in the form of HIE (Grade 3) and he may now require specialist care and rehabilitation for the rest of his life,” she says. “His family would like to ensure that lessons are learned from their experiences, and to do all they can to obtain the support Elliot may need to help him live his life as independently as possible as he grows up.”
“The family are incredibly selfless in dealing with Elliot’s care and their diary of his first year is very moving. I have no doubt that many parents up and down the country facing similar issues will take comfort and solidarity from it.”
Following early dialogue with the Trust about Elliot’s claim, I am pleased that they have admitted liability relatively early on – avoiding a protracted legal case, and the stress that is associated with this. We can now look to the future and focus on Elliot, and helping him secure care and therapies in order to aid his rehabilitation.”
Diary of a Cooling Kid
Alex and Nick are now determined to get Elliot the support he needs and give him the best possible chances in life.
They’re sharing his development on the Instagram account @diaryofacoolingkid. Posts show how Elliot has learnt to roll over, family playtime in the garden, and the specialist therapies Elliot gets to help his condition.
“During the early years of Elliot’s life we know it is crucial that he receives specialist support, rehabilitation and therapies, as early intervention can be vital in helping the brain to develop as much as possible,” said Alex.”
“While we are aware that he will always be affected by his injury we are focused on giving him the best quality of life we can, no matter what that takes. His first year has been so difficult to come to terms with and to understand what is best for Elliot, but we are determined to help him and we are so proud of what he is achieving so far despite his condition.
“We started the diary to document what we were going through on a daily basis as a family, and as well as helping us to share our story, we hope that others may find a crumb of comfort in there too.
“We now just hope that as well as securing specialist support for Elliot, that the Trust will learn lessons from the findings in the HSIB report and its admissions, and will implement all necessary recommendations to improve maternity care for others in future.”
If your family has been affected by a birth injury, our medical negligence solicitors may be able to help. Visit our Birth Injury Claims page for more information, or call us on 0370 1500 100.
Back to Client Stories
