'I've had to relive my daughter's death' - mother's anger over NHS trust failings
The mother of a 14-year-old girl who died as a result of safety failings at Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital said she is angry she had to spend three years fighting for recognition after the NHS trust which runs the hospital pleaded guilty to two charges.
At a hearing on Friday the Dudley Group NHS trust pleaded guilty to safety failings posing a “significant risk of avoidable harm” following the deaths of two patients.
One of them was 14-year-old Kaysie-Jane Robinson, from Netherton, who had cerebral palsy and was taken to hospital in March 2018 after developing symptoms of sepsis. She died six days later.
The trust has admitted two breaches of the 2008 Health and Social Care Act in relation to the clinical care of Kaysie-Jane and mother-of-six Natalie Billingham, from Tipton.
The charges admitted by the trust stated that it had failed to provide treatment in a safe way, resulting in harm, in February and March 2018.
The trust's lawyer Paul Spencer said the guilty plea in respect of Natalie Billingham was being entered on the basis that it did not accept its failings led to her death. But he did accept that the “poor care and treatment” of Kaysie-Jane had caused her death.
Kaysie-Jane's mother, Jane Robinson, 46, said her battle against the NHS trust had forced her to relive her daughter's death for the past three years.
The family previously received a seven-figure payout over separate complications at Wordsley Hospital, which was run by the same trust, during her birth which left her severely disabled.
Miss Robinson said: "I'm angry about the fact we have had to fight this for three years. It has been really upsetting to go through so much stress.
"It has been a really hard three years, all the letter writing and phone calls, reliving my daughter's death over and over again.
"I'm really angry they put me through this when they could have put their hands up at the first meeting."
Miss Robinson recalled the night her daughter was taken to hospital.
"I knew there was something desperately wrong with her," she said.
"She had a high temperature, spasms, she was in agony and sweating profusely.
"An ambulance blue-lighted us there. The ambulance crew flagged it as sepsis. Nothing was done."
The trust has said it was "deeply sorry" its care did not meet the high standards expected.
