The Doctor Said My Baby Was Dead. Two Days Later I Found Out It Was Still Alive…

A YOUNG mother is to sue a hospital where she claims a doctor mistakenly told her that her unborn baby was dead.

Nicola Leary, 20, spoke of her shock at discovering she was still pregnant, two days after a junior medic allegedly told her she had miscarried.

Mrs Leary said she went to Glasgow Royal Infirmary after she started bleeding and, after an examination by a doctor, was given the devastating news that she had lost her baby.

But at the same hospital two days later she claims that, after a scan, a nurse told her: ‘Who the hell told you your baby was dead? You have a perfectly healthy baby and it’s a big baby.’ Mrs Leary, who is married to Mark, 24, and has a one-year-old daughter, Morgan, said: ‘Last Wednesday, I went straight to hospital and after four hours I was put into a room with a gynaecologist.

‘He checked me over and said, “I realise this is not news you want to hear at the moment but your baby is dead”.

‘I started crying. I was really upset and shocked. He said he’d give me a minute and left the room. It was when he came back in I got a bit angry. I said, “How do you know that?”.

‘I knew I had to go back to have the baby removed, but I wasn’t ready to let go. I couldn’t accept what they said was true.

‘He asked if I wanted to stay in and I said no, that I was going to go home and concentrate on my other daughter.

‘I knew everyone would think I was crazy if I said it, but I felt the baby kicking.’ On Friday, she returned to hospital and was given a scan. It was then that she says she learned she was still carrying a healthy baby.

The former sales assistant, from Maryhill, Glasgow, said: ‘I went in for the scan and told the nurse I didn’t want to look.

‘I didn’t want to see my dead baby, but she turned the screen towards me and I could see the baby was alive.

‘I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t talk. I could see my baby’s heart beating. I burst out crying.

‘I couldn’t believe what was happening. When a specialist tells you your baby is dead, you believe him. He’s a doctor.’ At another check-up yesterday, Mrs Leary was assured she was still pregnant, with her second child due to arrive on October 31.

She said she still plans to sue, despite NHS Greater Glasgow clearing the doctor.

She said: ‘He is a professional and I believed what he told me.

Now I want justice.’ A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow, which governs the Royal Infirmary, said: ‘Following a thorough investigation of her case by Dr Alan Mathers, Clinical Director of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, the facts of the matter are that none of the hospital’s strict protocols when dealing with situations such as this was breached.

‘No patient would be told their unborn child was dead unless a detailed scan had been performed.

‘When a patient shows signs suggestive of miscarriage, they are advised that miscarriage is possible and that the signs are not hopeful, but they would never be told their baby is dead.

‘At no time, in such circumstances, would a DC (a scraping of the uterus lining) be carried out on any patient without a detailed ultrasound examination beforehand.

‘All these protocols were met when Mrs Leary was treated.

‘We are concerned to hear of any distress caused to Mrs Leary and wish her the best of health during the remainder of her pregnancy but felt the facts of the matter must be stressed.’ m.culley@dailymail.co.uk