http://smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/19/1071337135414.html

Mother gives birth in corridor, left with dying baby
December 19, 2003 - 10:39AM

A woman was left to give birth alone in a hospital corridor before being
handed her premature baby and being told she had no choice but to watch him
die.

That is the story told by Karen Middleton, who arrived at Westmead Hospital
on January 14 last year, five months pregnant and complaining of pelvic
pains.

Mother gives birth in corridor, left with dying baby
December 19, 2003 - 10:39AM
A woman was left to give birth alone in a hospital corridor before being
handed her premature baby and being told she had no choice but to watch him
die.
That is the story told by Karen Middleton, who arrived at Westmead Hospital
on January 14 last year, five months pregnant and complaining of pelvic
pains.

http://smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/19/1071337135414.html

Mother gives birth in corridor, left with dying baby
December 19, 2003 - 10:39AM

A woman was left to give birth alone in a hospital corridor before being
handed her premature baby and being told she had no choice but to watch him
die.

That is the story told by Karen Middleton, who arrived at Westmead Hospital
on January 14 last year, five months pregnant and complaining of pelvic
pains.

She was told by a doctor she had constipation and was sent home with
instructions to drink Metamucil.

Almost as soon as she did so she began vomiting and noticed blood in her
urine.

She returned to Westmead and was given an ultrasound which showed the baby
in the correct position.

The 31-year-old said she was then given what she believed was a pap smear
which caused severe pain and heavy bleeding.

When she complained, she said the doctor quickly left the room.

The mother of six was left alone and then felt her waters break.

Eventually a nurse came in and told her everything was fine, despite Ms
Middleton's belief that birth was imminent.

She was taken for another ultrasound and saw the baby had moved much further
down but was told birth was weeks or months away.

She was left on a trolley in the corridor outside the lab. Minutes later she
gave birth, alone.

Ms Middleton said the ultrasound operator was the first to reach her and was
visibly shocked.

"You could hear him calling out: "Where's the nurses? She's just had the
baby in the corridor!'"

The hospital conceded the baby was partially delivered on the trolley bed
but said a midwife was present and Ms Middleton was in the process of being
transferred to an empty room.

Ms Middleton said she was initially informed her baby was healthy but later
told he was likely to die quickly.

She said her requests that he be put in a humidicrib were refused.

"They said that he was too small, that they couldn't help him, that I had to
lie there and watch my son die," she said.

She was left alone holding her baby for an hour and a half, with the
placenta still inside her and scissors still clamping the umbilical cord.

Ms Middleton said her baby lived for three hours and ten minutes unassisted,
indicating he had a chance at survival if he was given medical help.

The death certificate recorded Harry Middleton as surviving for 90 minutes.

After this ordeal, Ms Middleton said doctors at the hospital had told her
the premature birth was caused by her weakened uterus but she remains
convinced the pap smear had triggered early labour.

After making complaints to the hospital and the Health Care Complaints
Commission (HCCC), Ms Middleton said she was then contacted by someone from
a psychiatric hospital who said they had been told by a Westmead
representative that she was mentally unstable.

In the meantime, the hospital mortician who laid out Harry's corpse ignored
Ms Middleton's requests that her baby be left in the same position he died
in.

Instead he tried to force the mouth closed and inadvertently broke the
baby's nose.

The HCCC referred the complaints to hospital operator Western Sydney Health,
which admitted and apologised for the mortician's mistake in a letter.

But WSH maintained Harry would never have survived and was left with his
mother "to provide a sensitive caring environment".

The service said there was no evidence that a pap smear was even conducted
on Ms Middleton, but a womb inspection was.

AAP has obtained a medical record of a "high vaginal swab" being executed on
Ms Middleton on the day in question, a procedure conducted in the same area.

WHS said Ms Middleton had met with hospital representatives and had been
sent a letter which they thought had satisfied her.

"The health service understood that Mrs Middleton was satisfied with the
investigation because nothing else was heard about the complaint until the
present time," WHS said in a statement.

Associate Professor Robert Bryce, clinical director of obstetrics and
gynaecology at Flinders University, said there was no known association
between pap smears or vaginal swabs and early labour.