Doncaster hospital trust admits failings over birth of boy left with disability

Bosses at Doncaster Royal Infirmary have admitted to mistakes which led to Balby youngster Nathan Rousso suffering from Erb’s palsy, a disability affecting the nerves in his arm, following difficulties during his birth at the hospital.

And his mum has now called for lessons to be learned after the incident.

Following his diagnosis, his mum Kelly Rousso, 41, instructed expert medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to investigate Nathan’s care under Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The trust has admitted a number of failings. These include that staff should have consulted Kelly on whether Nathan, now eight, should be delivered naturally or by caesarean and the risks associated with each option.

Discussions regarding the difficulties of the birth should have been undertaken after Nathan was noted to be large in size on an ultrasound from 30 weeks, it added.

Following the birth of her previous two sons, the mum-of-three, believed that she would have to undergo a caesarean section if she had any more children.

The trust admitted that if Nathan had been delivered by caesarean section he would have avoided his injury.

Georgina Houston, specialist medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell’s Sheffield office, representing Kelly, said: “This is a very worrying case in which Kelly believes her concerns regarding Nathan’s birth were ignored.

“It is absolutely vital that parents are always able to make an informed choice in relation to the delivery of a child. It is Kelly’s view that this did not happen.

“Nathan faces many challenges because of his disability which could have been easily avoided. While nothing will change what has happened, following the trust’s admissions, we are now working to ensure Nathan can access the specialist support and therapies he requires for his condition.

“It is important that lessons can be learned so that the issues seen in Nathan’s case do not happen to others.”

Kelly has two other children, Ashley and Dylan, aged 15 and 14 respectively.

She found out she was expecting her third child at the end of 2010. She had always understood that Nathan would have to be delivered by caesarean section following advice provided to her following the birth of Dylan.

However, plans were made to induce her on June 10 2011 and later that day, Nathan was born in a poor condition.

He has had to attend a number of appointments and also required two rounds of surgery in order to improve movement in his right arm.

Kelly said: “We are so proud of the determination that Nathan shows every day, although it is upsetting to see how he is beginning to notice a difference between his situation and his friends at school.

“While nothing will change what has happened, the admissions from the trust are very welcome. I just want Nathan to try and live as normal a life as possible and receiving specialist physiotherapy will help him achieve that.

“It is tough to accept that the issues he continues to face could have potentially been avoided had Nathan been delivered differently. We just want to ensure that the problems seen in Nathan’s birth do not happen again.

“It is vital that NHS Trusts listen to mums and take their concerns seriously. It is difficult to think that my concerns were not listened to properly and how things could have been different.”

A spokesperson for Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals said: “On behalf of the trust, I would like to apologise to Nathan and Kelly. The care they received fell well below the standards we expect as an organisation and for that we are truly sorry.

“In the intervening years, and after a detailed investigation, we have implemented a number of changes to try and ensure something like this does not happen again.

“I would encourage all of our patients to raise any concerns with us and, as a Trust, we will always try to act on that feedback to deliver the highest quality care and treatment.”