It arrived

Yesterday the Trust confirmed receipt of the letter.

So why am I doing this? I am going to try to explain why I have reached the point of taking legal action against the Trust I will not name but feel sure were recently featured on series 3 of a Channel 4 television show, obviously I am not sure of this claim because I haven't got a television.

I feel so angry. I can't make sense of it sometimes. I have my baby what do I have to be angry about?

Where to start? I am angry about how we were treated. I am angry about the resulting brain damage. I am angry that in all the letters the hospital wrote to me they did not once answer a question without covering their backs.

For example, I asked the hospital

'How often does the manufacturer [of the machine we were attached to] recommend the machine should be serviced and when was this last done?'

The hospital replied

'The manufacturer recommends yearly servicing and the next service is due in 2005.'

When I received my hospital notes I read correspondence between hospital employees that acknowledged the machine had been overdue a service when it was being used as my son was born. The facts are not as upsetting as the underhand answer to the perfectly reasonable question.

So I am angry not just at the way we were treated, the resulting brain damage, the life-long struggle DS will now have because of the resulting brain damage but also the bloody-mindedness of the hospital that caused that damage.

It is comforting to note that amongst the rude letters I have received from the Chief Executive is the claim that 'the quality of the CTG was good and able to be interpreted' I can't wait to hear him explain how the midwives missed the persistent complex variable decelerations and the 6 in 10 minute contractions and decided to increase the Syntocinon.

It has gone...

The letter of claim has been sent. It was posted on Friday 20th April. This is pursuant to paragraph 3.15 of the Pre-Action Protocol for the Resolution of Clinical Disputes (http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/protocol/prot_rcd) and now the Trust - I will not name it but I do believe the very hospital was featured in series 3 of a progrramme recently broadcast on Channel 4 - but not having a televsion I am not entirely sure I am correct in that respect...- has 14 days to acknowledge receipt of said letter and 4 months to respond to it. I know it is very likely that the Trust will ask for more time to conduct their investigations but it feels so close to the end.

Oh and I found this http://www.nmc-uk.org/General-public/Reporting-a-nurse-or-midwife-to-the-NMC/ I am going to make this the next step on my road to recovery.

The lovely DS had another seizure during the Easter holidays - early hours of Monday 9th April. N and I have now, after much research and debate, decided to medicate. We believe for now it is the right choice DS was keen ('yes, stop my seizures') and that was a big help in coming to the decision.

So decision made, paediatrican had suggested it in December after EEG confirmed epilepsy, he had written to the GP and told us if or when we wanted to medicate just to get in touch with the GP. But of course nothing is ever that easy. The GPs were only concerned about their budget and wanted to prescribe tablets - for a small boy with LDs and oral dyspraxia - even though the paed had said he would prescribe liquid arghhh. I was in tears shouting and swearing (opps!) before I got a prescription for syrup. If I'm honest I over-reacted I would love to be able to state my demands clearly, I was making a perfectly reasonable request: NICE guidelines on the epilepsies (CG137) state that medication should take account of co-morbidity and the person's or family's preferences; yet I was unable to make my request and respond to her (the GPs) attempts to change my mind. And I wonder why my children have melt downs!