South London mum sues hospital after suffering 4 pint blood loss and 'nearly dying' during labour

A South London mum sued a hospital after she nearly died during labour - following "constant contractions", a cardiac arrest and losing more than four pints of blood. Carla Richter, 39, was left with PTSD after the birth of her daughter when she was given "excess medication" which triggered "constant contractions", she says.

Carla lost 2.7 litres of blood while medics tried to manually remove her retained placenta six times, it is claimed. She 'begged' to be taken to surgery - where she had a cardiac arrest and was without a heartbeat for five minutes.

Carla sued Kingston Hospital in South West London, and Kingston Hospital NHS Trust has accepted partial blame agreeing to pay a £27,500 settlement. Carla, from Carshalton, London, said: "I just remember screaming - blood curdling screaming. They gave my daughter to me to hold but with the pain I was in, I couldn't bear to even hold her."

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Carla continued, "The amount of visible blood loss was horrifying. It was a really horrific experience and I was so confused because it seemed like no one was reacting. It wasn't right that our daughter had to hear that, and it all left my husband traumatised."

The nanny said she was 'ecstatic' when she found out she was pregnant with her second child after seven years of trying. She went into Kingston Hospital, South West London, on January 7, 2020, after her waters broke prematurely while picking up her seven-year-old son from school.

She claims the beginning of the hospital visit went smoothly but things started to take a turn after she went into labour. Carla says she struggled to get the attention of midwives administering contraction-inducing medication after the needle was put in the wrong place on her hand.

When staff tried the other hand, the excess medication triggered almost constant contractions with little time to recover, it is claimed. Despite giving birth to a healthy baby girl, she was in so much pain due to a post-partum haemorrhage caused by a retained placenta that she couldn't even hold her newborn baby.

She lost 2.7 litres of blood as doctors attempted to manually remove the placenta six times. After begging to be be taken to theatre, she was given spinal anaesthesia without time to regain fluids via IV resulting in a cardiac arrest.

After the birth, Carla was moved to ICU and didn't see her baby daughter until two days later. As a result of the traumatic birth, Carla was diagnosed with PTSD and underwent cognitive behavioural therapy to help her recover.

Husband Dean, who had gone into cardiac arrest the year before, was also affected, fearing that he would lose his wife. Carla contacted Veritas Solicitors and sued the hospital being paid £27.5k in February this year. "I was crying and couldn't stop," she said.

"I was honestly an emotional wreck. While I was in the ICU, I had been so scared I couldn't sleep at night. I was terrified that something else would be wrong and they wouldn't catch it."

She continued, "my husband is a very strong person, but even he broke down at the hospital. It's literally the first time I've ever seen him so emotional. For me, them accepting liability is so much more important than the money - knowing that it wasn't my fault, and it was to do with them means everything."

Veritas Solicitors LLP say a consultant obstetrician and consultant anaesthetist have said there were a number of failings which led to Carla becoming unresponsive. These include the excessive number of attempts to manually deliver the placenta, not calling a senior obstetrician to assist after three failed attempts at removal, and the failure to transfer to theatre or aggressively administer fluids in a timely manner, they say. Kingston Hospital NHS Trust has been approached for comment.

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