Midwife reveals other blunders at inquest (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Midwife reveals other blunders at inquest

8:34am Wednesday 16th January 2008 in Swindon By Hayley Court

MIDWIFE Tracey Reynolds shocked jury members at the inquest into a new mum's death by admitting a hospital drugs blunder had happened before.

The revelation emerged yesterday after persistent lawyers accused the experienced nurse of withholding evidence.

Sister Reynolds was giving evidence on day five of the inquest into the death of Mayra Cabrera at the hands of midwives at the Great Western Hospital.

Mayra, 30, died on May 11, 2004 after being given a powerful epidural anaesthetic in her hand instead of her spine.

She died just one hour after giving birth to her son Zac.

Sister Reynolds was grilled for more than two hours before revealing that there had been other non-fatal cases of Bupivacaine being administered intravenously in April and May 2001.

She said she was told of the previous incidents by another midwife in a conversation 12 weeks ago.

Malcolm Fortune, representing the Swindon NHS Trust, pressed her for the name of the person she had the conversation with.

Coroner David Masters berated the midwife for withholding what he described as "important information", reminding her that she was under oath.

He went on to ask her why she hadn't told anyone about what she had learnt.

He said: "And in that conversation why did you keep the information, as important as it is, to yourself."

Sister Reynolds then revealed she spoke to midwife LC Perks but was scared to reveal her name earlier because the inquest process frightened her.

She said: "I was frightened and scared it may have been out of loyalty to my colleagues, or the trust.

"We all felt very vulnerable that we could have all made that same drug error."

She went on to blame Midwife Marie To for the most recent blunder where Mayra lost her life.

She said: "I assumed Marie was involved."

When Mr Masters asked why, she added: "The most probable person to put up the drip was Marie To."

Saying that she was unable to recall the conversation fully, the jury then called for Sister Perks - who gave evidence last week - to be re-called to the stand.

Mr Masters supported the request and agreed to recall her for further questioning today.