Hospital failings led to baby death

Daniel Kunigiskis died at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire on October 13, 2012 after being transferred from Warwick Hospital where he suffered from a lack of oxygen at birth leading to a severe brain injury.

Coventry Coroner’s Court heard that Mrs Kunigiskis was in her second pregnancy, and had previously suffered post natal depression and was assessed as a medium risk patient.

However, the inquest found that there was a lack of cohesive care given to Mrs Kunigiskis, so much so that three different midwives failed to read her antenatal notes and those in charge did not monitor the foetal heart adequately.

Dr Jackson, the consultant obstetrician, indicated that had he been aware of the problems during Daniel’s birth, Daniel would have been delivered some 45 minutes earlier and he would have been born alive.

This narrative verdict follows the death of Lucas Fermor at Warwick in May 2012, which was also found to have been preventable.

The Kunigiskis family said: “We put our trust in Warwick Hospital and we have been so very let down by them. 

“We had no reason to think we wouldn’t have had a healthy baby boy and because of the incompetence of the staff, our whole family has been devastated.  

“The fact that this happened only four months earlier to another family and assurance were given by the Hospital at that time that procedures were put in place to prevent this from happening again, makes it so much worse.  “

Helen Lancaster, director of nursing, said: “The Trust has accepted that mistakes were made during the delivery of Daniel Kunigiskis, which we sincerely regret. We have fully investigated this and have taken significant actions in response. On behalf of the Trust I would like to apologise and offer my condolences to Daniel’s family.”