A baby was left in a cupboard by a Midwife
A recent story of medical negligence has emerged.
Two midwives left a sick woman’s four-day-old baby on its stomach in a stationery cupboard a tribunal heard.
Yvonne Musonda-Malata and Christine Onade are accused of failing to provide appropriate clinical care to a baby while they were working their night shift at Queen’s Hospital Romford North-East London.
Ms Malata 35 who has been a nurse since 2004, were responsible for looking after the baby so that its mother could catch up on sleep the
Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) heard.
The midwives were allegedly looking after the baby known as Baby A in a cot near the midwives station before the baby was moved into a large stationery cupboard after Baby A became unsettled.
Ms Musonda-Malata and Ms Onade46 also stand accused of failing to record feeds they gave to Baby A they both deny these allegations.
The alleged incident which took place on 18th April 2011 was reported by Alex Curtis a nursery nurse at the hospital who found Baby A at around 6:30am alone in the cupboard.
Alex told the tribunal: “I went to the post-natal ward to get an envelope from the stationary cupboard and found a baby lying on its tummy on its own.
“The baby was in the cot just behind the door. I cannot remember whether the light was off or on but I saw the baby on its front and went to check it is was breathing.
“This was an unusual occurrence. We always lie a baby on its back as there is a risk of cot death.
“If as a nursery nurse I took responsibility for a parent’s baby I would never leave it alone. If I needed to go off and do something I would ask another nurse to look after the baby.”
Derek Zeitlin the case presenter at the NMC said: “The baby’s mother has a health condition and it is vitally important for her to get a good night’s sleep. Her husband therefore invited the midwives to take the baby away so that his wife could get a good night’s sleep.
“That decision was not taken lightly. The nurse looking after Baby A’s mother was involved in that decision. It was the right thing to do.”
Mr Zeitlin said that Baby A had periods of being unsettled throughout the night and that there was “no specific place to put a baby” during it’s care in the post-natal ward.
He said that Ms Malata and Ms Onade had both confirmed that Ms Malata had put Baby A in a cot in the doorway of the cupboard but said that the door stayed open.
He went on to say: “There came a stage where Ms Malata was called away to another patient and was away for about 20 minutes.
“The next thing that happened was a member of the nursing staff went to the cupboard and was shocked to find Baby A inside.
“The door was closed. The baby was found on its stomach but babies are always placed on their back to avoid cot death.”
He said: “There were no feeding charts for Baby A. The reality of that was that entries that were made about feeds didn’t coincide with what the registrants record about the feeds.
“There was a question of whether Baby A may have been overfed.”
The hearing continues.
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