A couple have been awarded a five-figure medical negligence payout after surgeons forgot to remove a breathing tube which was inserted into their new born baby son.
When Owen Thomas was born in February 2007, one of his shoulders became stuck during his birth, and he wasn’t breathing. As a result surgeons inserted a breathing tube to save his life.
A week later, the baby coughed up the tube which had been left inside him following the oversight by hospital staff.
The couple won their compensation claim against Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and has been awarded compensation.
Owen, who is now 5, was not permanently injured by the incident. However, his mother believes he would have died if she had not been there at the time.
Mrs Thomas said when Owen was 10 days old, her husband and a friend were visiting her in the specialist care unit at Stafford Hospital, Owen turned blue and looked like he was choking. So she slapped him on the back and a tube came out.
“The nurse took him off me and gave him oxygen as well as checking him over.”