Couple tell of 'nightmare' after being wrongly told their baby girl had died in the womb

27 February 2025, 08:54 | Updated: 27 February 2025, 10:56

A couple have told LBC they're still experiencing nightmares after being mistakenly told their baby had died in the womb - only for her to be born alive hours later.

Jamal and his wife, who LBC is not naming, arrived for a regular check-up at Bradford Royal Infirmary Maternity Unit on December 31st 2023. There, the couple were told clinicians could not find a heartbeat and that the baby had died.

Doctors suggested the couple return the following day for a caesarean, but Jamal pushed for them to be allowed back sooner and so it was agreed they would come in for the operation at 7pm that same day.

One last check was made by the medical team before the operation to remove the baby, when they found a heartbeat.

The baby girl was delivered in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2024, but Jamal and his wife had faced a whole day thinking their daughter had died in the womb.

“We were grieving.” Says Jamal. “As parents we’ve been to hell and back. We would not wish this on anybody. My legs turned to jelly. It’s something I’ve never experienced in my life before. It’s absolutely shocking, I still have nightmares today, so does my wife.

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“She’s always on the edge with my daughter... she gives her extra care and love.”

Jamal and his family are Muslim, and in the hours before heading back into the hospital, says it meant they had all sorts to think about.

“On top of it all, our religion and faith comes into play, so we were preparing for a funeral, because she was over 24 weeks.”

A letter from the hospital, sent to the couple on 3rd January 2024 apologised to the couple for the “experience and emotional distress” as well as the “misdiagnosis that your baby had died in the womb.”

The letter goes on to say, “when an unexpected error occurs, a thorough review of care is undertaken to provide an understanding of exactly what happened and to identify any learning or areas for improvement.”

Jamal tells me what really angered him, was the consultant who had told the couple their baby had died in the womb, “was too embarrassed to face them.”

“I’ve lost all trust and faith in them.” Jamal says. “I take my hat off to the nurses and the midwives that work there, I would be very wrong to say anything against them. But the doctors and medical experts, who are in serious positions and make serious decisions on life and death matters, I have lost complete trust in them.

“My message to them is that you should be ashamed of yourselves because you’re putting parents through hell. I hope you sleep well at night because we don’t.”

According to the Care Quality Commission, around 6,000 babies are born at the hospital each year and at its latest inspection in November 2024, the maternity services were rated as ‘requires improvement’.

This is not the first time there have been concerns at the neonatal unit at the hospital. In 2021, two babies died on the Maternity Ward at Bradford Royal Infirmary, and another was born with severe disabilities.

A former Chair of the Trust, Dr Max McClean, resigned over concerns that what happened to these three babies was not investigated quickly enough.

In September last year, the CQC published a review of maternity services across England, from 2022-2024. It highlighted a host of issues which were "widespread across England.”

On safety, 47% of trusts were rated as ‘requires improvement', whilst almost half were judged to be providing care that was either 'inadequate' or 'requires improvement'

Jamal and his partner are constituents of Naz Shah, the Labour MP for Bradford West. She says there have been concerns about the leadership at Bradford Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust, and claims it’s affecting patient safety. “We’ve had two deaths on the ward from an infection called klebsiella. They were preventable. There is an issue when it comes to baby deaths.

“If anybody raises a question, there are witch hunts against those who dare to raise their voice.

“If you do not have trust and confidence at the top, that trickles down. The leadership defines the travel of that organisation. If you have a leadership that is shutting down concerns, it impacts patient safety.

Ms Shah's points were echoed by Suzanne White, a partner at the law firm Leigh Day who specialises in clinical negligence cases.

"There needs to be duty of candour when things have gone wrong. I see time and time again trusts do not admit when things have gone wrong," Ms White said. "That means they don't accept that they're providing poor care to mothers and babies... That [then] does not get translated throughout the trust and the NHS to learn lessons about what's gone wrong."

Ms White added that she found it "absolutely staggering" that a heartbeat was not identified in this case.

"It's staggering that the heartrate was not detected and, without checking that, [the hospital] told the family such horrible and devastating news - it's very shocking indeed.

A spokesperson for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We sincerely apologise for the distressing experience this family has been through, and we acknowledge the significant emotional impact this has had on them.

“As a Trust, we take incidents like this extremely seriously and are committed to learning from them. A full internal review has been undertaken to understand what happened and to ensure that any necessary improvements are made. The findings, learning and actions were shared with the couple in March 2024 and we have not had any contact from them since.

“The Trust will make further contact with the family and will offer to meet with them again to discuss their concerns. We remain committed to supporting them and providing any further information they require.

“Due to patient confidentiality, we wouldn’t comment on individual cases publicly. However, we want to reassure all our patients and their families that we continually strive to provide the safest and highest quality maternity care.”

The family say they are considering taking legal action against the hospital. For Jamal, his wife and their little girl who they call their “miracle baby” it’s left a lasting impact.

“We possibly want to have another couple of children. Another child would probably complete us as a family. But we live in Bradford. We’re scared.”