Tragic tale of baby Hooper 

Source: 20/20Charley Hooper

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New Zealand's maternity system has come under fire recently and the Australians have even branded it "an unfortunate experiment". One local expert wants a national inquiry.

The bittersweet story of the Hooper family seems almost unbelievable after their baby girl was all but suffocated during her birth on September 7, 2005.

Charley Hooper, a beautiful girl with silky hair and deep brown eyes, is facing a lifetime of pain and suffering after two midwives botched her resuscitation at birth.

Charley's parents, Jenn and Mark Hooper are living a 24-7 nightmare.

"Charley doesn't feel like my daughter," says Jenn, adding she's more like Charley's nurse. "She's work and worry a lot of the time."

Mark says he sees other children her age and wishes it was Charley running around.

Eight years ago Jenn and Mark were told that they couldn't have children. Jenn says when her dad died about five years ago she said to him if he could see a way to sending her a baby she would call her Charley after him.

On Christmas Day 2004 Jenn discovered she was pregnant, with the baby due on Father's Day. It was a dream pregnancy with no sign of any trouble.

"It was all supposed to be so magic...and then it went so horribly wrong," says Jenn.

"People say to me now it is really surprising they didn't pick up something at the scan. I can't get them to understand there was nothing at the scan...this was done to her the day, literally the minute, she was born."

From dream to nightmare

On September 7 Jenn went into labour and was admitted to the Rhoda Read maternity unit at Morrinsville. At 10:43am her midwife discovered an irregular heartbeat and called for urgent assistance and an ambulance. At 11am the ambulance arrived and was sent away because the midwives decided to go it alone as Jenn was too close to giving birth.

Four minutes later Charley was born - floppy and not breathing.

"I believe the midwives probably panicked. I don't know what other reason there could be for it...and they forgot to clear her throat," Jenn says.

For 21 minutes the midwives tried to get Charley to breathe by using oxygen and chest compressions.

"In their panic they didn't realise that basic resuscitation wasn't working," says jenn.

At 11:25 the decision was made to intubate - feed a hose down the baby's airway. When that didn't work, the midwives finally called Waikato Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit for help.

At 11:35 a second attempt was made to intubate Charley which seemed to work. But when the experts arrived - nearly an hour after Charley was born - they discovered the tube wasn't in her lungs and had been fed into her stomach.

For the first hour of her life, Charley had received very little oxygen.

As Charley was rushed to Waikato Hospital the midwives realised that Jenn - white and drifting in and out of consciousness - was slowly bleeding out. She had suffered a major haemorrhage and had to be rushed to hospital by ambulance to undergo an emergency blood transfusion.

"Of course I'm angry... I'm really angry," Jenn, who made a full recovery, says.

But Charley's life was all but lost and doctors have labelled her one of New Zealand's most disabled children. She experiences hundreds of seizures every day.

What incenses the Hooper's is that technically - statistically - Charley is a success story because she was born alive.

System in need of change

Lynda Exton believes the system is letting women down and costing babies their lives.

"I can't imagine what that family is going through," says Dr Exton. "I think every day...daily living...would take a lot of courage in that circumstance."

The Christchurch GP obstetrician says it seems like there is a network of tragedies and she wonders how many Charleys are out there.

"I've come across the cases of hundreds of families," she says of what she describes as "an unmonitored scandal".

Jenn is convinced Charley is a victim of that scandal and her and husband Mark have fought for justice for their little girl. Neither parent can work and they are now 24-hour caregivers.

Waiting outside operating theatres has become a way of life for the pair who have done it nine times in 18 months. And the future holds more of the same.

But finding what went wrong, and who - if anyone - is to blame has not been easy.

Who's to blame?

"I'd hired an advocate to get the birth notes because the midwife, the LMC (lead maternity carer) Sue Van Dam she just ignored my request, completely ignored me," says Jenn.

20/20 also tried to get the Waikato midwife to talk but she was reluctant to shed any light on the case.

"I can't believe anybody can do anything like this to any newborn baby and walk away saying sorry, but by the way it wasn't my fault," says Jenn.

In the hope of preventing another tragedy, Jenn filed a complaint with the Health and Disability Commissioner. She accused the midwives of failing to monitor her properly, failing to monitor the unborn baby properly, failing to resuscitate Charley properly and covering up their mistakes by doctoring their notes.

Jenn says she knows it wasn't deliberate but it wasn't an accident and for whatever reason she says "they didn't do a good job of a basic resuscitation".

The health and disability commissioner found no evidence of note doctoring but ruled that the midwives had failed to keep adequate records, failed to co-ordinate back-up and breached the code in several respects. They were ordered to review their practices, undertake further training and send a letter of apology.

Apology

Van Dam's apology was briefer than expected and Jenn describes it as "cold, nasty, arrogant and forced".

The letter says: "I apologise for these breaches and understand how traumatic and stressful this has been for yourself...however the care that I gave that day was to the best of my medical ability and no one could have possibly predicted the outcome that occurred."

The letter was supposed to heal the pain and help the family move on but Jenn says the apology is not enough.

Despite the commissioner finding Van Dam and her co-workers in breach of the code until now they have been protected from public scrutiny. Their names and even the town and province they work in has never been disclosed.

20/20 wanted to get both sides of the story but were told to go to the College of Midwives. The college sent a statement expressing their deepest sympathy. It says all the midwives involved in the case are active and responsible, have extensively reviewed their practise to ensure they can make changes if required and are extremely distressed at the outcome.

Jenn says people tell her she is unlucky it happened to her but she says it shouldn't be down to luck. "It should be down to skill and knowledge and experience."

Cases like Charley's have got some doctors in the baby business calling for a national inquiry.

"I think it should have been done years ago," Exton says, adding that it is possible there will be more Charleys if the status quo continues.

Meanwhile for Jenn there is no moving on. "I'll be angry for the rest of my life."