Thursday, 16 August

A coroner has criticised a midwife for texting a heavily pregnant woman to assess her condition a day before her baby died following an emergency caesarean. Hastings coroner Christopher Devonport is also critical of delays and wrong diagnosis once the mother was in Hawke's Bay Hospital, with a registrar putting off assessment until she'd finished her lunch. The woman texted the midwife early one morning in June last year saying she had a loss of bloody fluid. The unnamed midwife replied saying she should contact her again if she had further bleeding.

Photo by Thinkstock Aug 13, 2012