Baby's death 'shames NHS'

Britain has been accused of having a third-world health service by a German couple whose baby died after the birth went catastrophically wrong.

Christoph Schwennicke and his wife Ulrike Weidner, who had moved to London from Berlin, spoke out after their son, Jacob, died three months after being born by emergency Caesarean in St George's hospital in Tooting.

The couple, who are moving back to Germany with their daughter Jule, say the state of the health service in one of the richest countries in the world is a "disgrace and a shame".

Mr Schwennicke, a journalist with a Munich paper who had been posted to London, said: "I want to do what I can to give people a wakeup call. To tell people, 'Listen, I had this experience. I find this system dangerous and you should consider changing something'. As a journalist I am used to judging things maybe too quickly, but this time I've thought a lot about it and I would like to tell you, something is not in order here."

The Anglophile couple, admirers of Tony Blair and committed to the NHS, had decided against a private hospital. "We didn't want to go the posh way. We thought, we'll have our baby here like normal people do. That was a fatal mistake," said Mr Schwennicke.

But they found their local NHS hospital, close to their home in Kingston, fully booked. They were told they would have to go to St George's, 12 miles away. This was in January last year - the baby was not due until September.

But when Ms Weidner looked at the ward, she was appalled. "I heard the number of labours and I heard the number of staff they have," she said. "I spoke afterwards with a lady, pregnant as well, who had come from Singapore. She also was devastated. We said: 'Oh my gosh, it's like the third world. Can you imagine?"

The couple hired a midwife and opted for home birth. On Sunday 28 August Ulrike's contractions started. The midwife arrived but the contractions stopped and she was taken to St George's. By 10am the next day she told staff she was considering an elective Caesarean, but doctors told her to hold on for a vaginal delivery. It was six hours since the contractions had stopped. As an epidural was being administered her uterus "simply exploded", Mr Schwennicke said.

There had been a hidden rupture. It was decided to perform an emergency Caesarean and Jacob was delivered at 13.05. He said he did not hear the baby cry, as he did when their daughter was born. "This time there was just hectic stress. I heard, 'Stop her bleeding, stop her bleeding'. There were three or four over her tummy. Then I almost fainted. I went out. I couldn't stand it any more."

The uterus had been ripped apart, but the baby was stabilised. However an MRI scan showed he had suffered restricted oxygen supply to his brain, causing severe damage, with an 80 per cent chance of severe disability. Once his condition stabilised they were allowed to take him home. But, after suffering three lung infections, he died.

Mr Schwennicke believes a Caesarean should have been carried out sooner.

"I can't fight the feeling that we are the victims of the NHS on a bank holiday when there was too much to do and not enough experienced staff to do it," he said in an interview with The Guardian today. "I can't understand why people tolerate a health system like this one."

Mr Schwennicke and Ms Weidner are taking legal action against St George's. A hospital spokesman said because the case was the subject of legal proceedings he could not comment in detail. He said: "However, we are deeply sorry for what happened. This was a serious and complex case with serious and important lessons for the hospital. The events that surround the incident continue to be examined by doctors and midwives."