Baby died after doctors mistook mother’s internal bleeding for ‘trapped wind’, inquest told
A baby died after doctors mistook her mother's life-threatening internal bleeding for trapped wind. When Kimberley Newark attended Princess Royal Hospital at 34 weeks pregnant with severe abdominal pain in September 2024, maternity staff dismissed her symptoms and gave her pain relief and colic tablets instead of investigating properly. When her condition rapidly deteriorated and her baby's heart rate dropped dangerously, emergency surgery revealed she had suffered a ruptured splenic artery, losing about 11 litres of blood—a delay in diagnosis that deprived her newborn of oxygen during delivery with fatal consequences.
Olivia was born unresponsive and pale, requiring resuscitation, but tests revealed she had suffered severe hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy with no brain activity. Her parents made the heartbreaking decision to withdraw life support, and Olivia died five days after birth on 19 September 2024. An inquest at Horsham heard that Kimberley had repeatedly raised concerns about deteriorating health including anaemia, nausea, exhaustion and persistent pain before the hospital visit, but these were not properly acted upon.
- Pregnant woman's severe bleeding mistaken for trapped wind
- Diagnostic delay deprived newborn of oxygen during emergency delivery
- Baby died five days after birth from brain injury
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A heavily pregnant woman attended hospital with severe abdominal pain, but medical staff mistook her symptoms for trapped wind and provided pain relief. The true cause was a ruptured blood vessel that was causing internal bleeding. By the time emergency surgery was performed, she had lost a critical amount of blood.
The delay in treatment meant her baby did not receive adequate oxygen during the emergency delivery that followed. The newborn was born unresponsive and had suffered severe damage from oxygen deprivation. Her parents chose to withdraw life support and the baby died five days after birth.
The mother had previously attended the same hospital at 34 weeks of pregnancy with complaints of exhaustion, nausea and anaemia. These concerns were not investigated. Such cases raise questions about the standards of diagnosis and care in maternity services.
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The case for
Abdominal pain in late pregnancy is common and often benign, making initial symptomatic management with analgesia a reasonable approach. Splenic artery rupture during pregnancy is extraordinarily rare and may not feature prominently even in appropriate clinical decision-making. The team responded with suitable emergency protocols when deterioration occurred, and whilst the outcome is tragic, the initial decisions made may have aligned with reasonable practice.
The case against
A pregnant woman presenting with severe abdominal pain should receive proper diagnostic investigation rather than symptomatic treatment alone. The patient had raised multiple prior concerns about deteriorating health—including anaemia, exhaustion, and persistent pain—which should have prompted thorough evaluation. The pattern of inadequately addressing symptoms before and during this admission fell below the standard of care and contributed to fatal delays in diagnosis.