The case so far, as jury deliberates (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

The case so far, as jury deliberates

9:30am Friday 1st February 2008 in Swindon

THE inquest into Mayra Cabrera's death began on January 7.

Mrs Cabrera died just an hour after giving birth to her healthy 8lb son Zac at Swindon's Great Western Hospital on May 11, 2004. An epidural anaesthetic, Bupivacaine, had been injected into her arm instead of her spine.

Mayra, 30, suffered a heart attack which a post-mortem later confirmed had been caused by drug toxicity. Doctors had spent 90 minutes trying to resuscitate her.

Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust later admitted liability for the error.

The nine-strong jury has heard that the drug mix-up had happened three times before at the hospital, but had not proved fatal before.

They have also been told that nurses were forced to obtain unlabelled drugs from boxes strewn on the floor after staff moved from the former Princess Margaret Hospital to the new Great Western.

Mrs Cabrera's 38-year-old husband Arnel has found the inquest too painful to attend but will be in court for the verdict.

In a statement read out at the start of the hearing at Trowbridge Coroner's Court, he said: "The person who gave Mayra that drug robbed me of my family.'' Senior midwife Jeanne Hutchins, the first to give evidence at the inquest, broke down in tears as she was questioned by barrister Gerwyn Samuels about the catalogue of safety checks midwives are required to carry out when setting up drips for patients.

She said that nurses were only human and mistakes could be made.

Doctor Peter Marden who tried to resuscitate the already-poisoned young mum, was handed a bag of Bupivacaine instead of life-giving fluids.

He told the inquest: "I held the bag over my head and said don't anyone hand me Bupivacaine again' and then I threw it in the bin.'' Midwifery consultant Helen O'Dell, who works for the Local Supervising Authority, accused a former senior midwife of gross failure over the death.

Accusations of malpractice in the role Sister Marie To played on that fateful day were put to her earlier in the inquest, accusations which she denied.

But Mrs O'Dell told the hearing Ms To had failed to carry out good practice.

She said: "It was a gross failure in not recognising that her (Mayra's) blood pressure had dropped significantly and in not calling the doctor back to check her. Midwives are professional and as such accountable.'' It has also been revealed that Ms To failed to complete Mayra's patient records. Instead she did so retrospectively, more than an hour after her death.