Disgraceful act by British hospital

Mother was accused of kidnapping baby as part of hospital exercise

An unsuspecting mother was accused by hospital staff taking part in a security exercise of stealing a baby from a ward as she left the building with her new daughter. Clare Bowker, 37, was confronted by staff as she got into her car outside Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands. She was asked to accompany them to the maternity unit with Hannah, her seven-week-old baby, and her other daughter Holly, then four, where she was told a baby had been snatched. Mrs Bowker was questioned by police and her bag searched to verify her identity.

She was recognised by her midwife who confirmed that Mrs Bowker had given birth to Hannah by caesarean section at the hospital seven weeks earlier. During the same exercise, it was arranged for another baby to be taken off the ward, with the father's consent, to make staff believe a baby had genuinely been lost.

A distressed Mrs Bowker was allowed to leave the hospital after 40 minutes, still believing the situation was real. It was only when she called the midwife a few hours later that she was informed she had been involved in a "staged" staff training event. She suffered post traumatic stress after the experience in December 2005 and underwent a year of counselling over what the hospital has called a case of "mistaken identity". The Good Hope Hospital Trust has agreed to pay her undisclosed compensation, believed to be a five-figure sum, to cover her suffering and loss of earnings.

Mrs Bowker, of Four Oaks, West Midlands, said: "It is an awful thing to be accused of and I want to make sure nobody else has to go through what I went through. "I think I am a strong person, but you can be quite vulnerable so soon after giving birth. If somebody in management had approached me on the day and asked me to take part in some kind of exercise, I probably would have done so. "Instead they targeted me and the 40 minutes felt like hours. They clearly made no risk assessment, they didn't use actors and they also put the staff members through a very stressful ordeal."

She gave up her job as a conference manager at Birmingham's Aston University and now works four hours a week as a support tutor at Sutton Coldfield College. Mrs Bowker added: "For a long time I was blaming myself for my reaction. I would burst into tears for no reason. I thought I was being silly for getting so upset. "Then I was told I had post-traumatic stress disorder."

A spokesman for Good Hope Hospital said they had apologised to Mrs Bowker for her experience. He said: "The safety of babies in our maternity unit is very important so we regularly carry out routine exercises to ensure our ward and security staff know what to do to prevent babies being unlawfully taken from the unit. "Unfortunately on one occasion in 2005, there was a case of mistaken identity in which a member of the public, Mrs Bowker, was caught up in an exercise. "A full investigation of the incident was carried out and we have apologised for this mistake and compensated Mrs Bowker for her inconvenience and embarrassment."

The Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, which now manages the hospital, said it did not carry out such exercises and uses alternative methods to test security procedures.

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More public hospital negligence in Australia

After all the publicity about meningococcal meningitis and its drastic outcomes, it's incomprehensible that it is not looked for as a first step. One suspects another underqualified immigrant doctor. Public hospitals employ almost any doctor at all and don't look too closely at their qualifications

A FAMILY is seeking a $7 million payout after their 10-month-old son was left blind, deaf, brain-damaged and disabled by an undiagnosed bout of meningitis. Jeremy Netherway, now 8, was diagnosed with a viral infection when his worried parents rushed him to Perth's St John of God Hospital in Subiaco on May 29, 2000. But the boy's parents, Nicola and Peter Netherway, claim the hospital and a doctor, Anita Cvitanovich, failed to recognise that Jeremy had pneumococcal meningitis.

They are suing the doctor and the hospital for $7 million, saying Dr Cvitanovich failed to carry out tests to confirm meningitis and delayed giving Jeremy antibiotics to treat the illness. They also claim the hospital failed to keep the doctor fully informed of Jeremy's condition.

The damages amount has already been agreed to by all parties but the doctor and hospital have denied liability and blame each other for Jeremy's condition. The liability issue is on trial in the District Court, with judge Shauna Deane presiding over the matter, which is listed for three weeks.

Giving evidence yesterday, Mr Netherway choked back tears as he described the day his son was rushed to hospital. "He was listless, he had his eyes shut, his head was tilted back. He was very, very pale," Mr Netherway said. His wife, Nicola, earlier told the court that Jeremy had been admitted to hospital for the night after Dr Cvitanovich diagnosed him as having a viral infection, saying he needed to be rehydrated. She said the doctor had told her meningitis was a possibility but that it was unlikely. But Ms Netherway said that after sleeping for two hours, her son's condition became progressively worse. He was suffering from a fever and vomiting constantly until he was dry-retching, she said.

By the time Dr Cvitanovich returned at 8am on May 30 to check on Jeremy's condition, the baby was grunting and breathing coarsely, Ms Netherway said. It was then that the doctor placed him on intravenous antibiotics and took blood before he was rushed toPrincess Margaret Hospital for Children.

Ms Netherway told the court she saw Dr Cvitanovich a few days later in the intensive care unit, where she was informed that Jeremy may suffer paralysis from his illness. He now requires full-time care.

The court has already heard that Dr Cvitanovich did not see Jeremy after 10.30pm on May 29 but had told nurses to contact her if Jeremy was vomiting, had not urinated or his temperature had risen above 38.5C. She did not return to the hospital until 8am the next day when Jeremy's condition had worsened considerably, Ms Netherway said.

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