Sheerness couple demand answers for still born son
Kristina and Lee Pepper's son, Theo, was still born last year at Medway Maritime Hospital but after a post-mortem they discovered his death could have been avoided.
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00:00 Sleep peacefully, my little sunshine, too perfect for this world. A beautiful angel
00:07 was born. We love you to the moon and back. Mist and love, forever and always. Fly high
00:14 little one.
00:16 The words no father wants to say for a son that will never hear them. For more than a
00:21 decade Christina and Lee Pepper waited to start their family of three. When they learnt
00:27 she was pregnant with Theo they were overjoyed. But just before the due date Christina lost
00:34 fluid and called up the midwife service. She was told it was nothing to worry about. When
00:41 she came to the hospital two days later this proved to be fatal.
00:45 Theo was born on the 11th, which was the Wednesday, stillborn. And he was perfect. I can't tell
00:57 you how perfect he was. And I know every parent thinks that their child is perfect, but that's
01:02 because they are. It's a life. And the second that he came out, the consultant in there
01:12 looked at me and she said, "It's alright, you'll be here again soon with another one."
01:18 Like he didn't matter. Like he could be replaced.
01:23 Here in my hand is a 12 page incident report conducted by the Medway NHS Foundation Trust
01:29 into Theo's death. It highlights a range of human factors that contributed to the stillbirth.
01:35 The family later learnt this death was preventable.
01:40 We had his post-mortem in December where we found that there was a small blockage in the
01:47 cord. But they also said that if we'd have got up there at least by the Sunday night,
02:00 Theo would be here alive. They would have performed an emergency C-section and he would
02:03 be here. We were supposed to have our first Christmas with our miracle. We waited 14 years
02:11 for him. He was supposed to be our miracle. It turned into our worst nightmare.
02:19 Some of the contributing factors highlighted in the report include the fact the midwife
02:23 who took Christina's call was preoccupied by a previous phone conversation and that
02:28 she hadn't taken a break all day. The report also states she didn't want to escalate the
02:33 situation because the hospital was busy and she didn't want to burden staff.
02:38 We did reach out to the Medway NHS Foundation Trust to hear what they had to say. This is
02:43 what Sara Vu, the interim chief nursing officer, told us.
02:47 We offer our deepest condolences to Mr and Mrs Pepper for the devastating loss of their
02:52 baby and we are deeply sorry for the distress they are experiencing. We carried out an extensive
02:59 investigation to help answer the family's questions and to identify and implement improvements
03:04 to the service. The findings were recently shared with them. We continue to offer Mr
03:10 and Mrs Pepper our support for as long as they need it.
03:13 Christina and Lee now hope to set up a foundation in Theo's name but this won't fill the gap
03:19 left behind by their stillborn son, nor the questions his death leaves behind.
03:26 Oliver, Leader of the Saks, reporting for KMTV.