Health care outrage: UK hospital left premature newborn to die

Health care outrage: UK hospital left premature newborn to die

Jayden Capewell was born a fighter. As his mother went into labor, she was told that her son would be deformed, disabled, and dead. Sarah Capewell’s son, born just 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy, moved his tiny arms and legs and was breathing on his own. He was certainly not dead, disabled, or deformed. Doctors, however, refused to give him intensive treatment to possibly save his life, and his mother was mourning his death less than two hours later.

It’s hard to imagine why doctors would refuse to treat an newborn, premature infant. However, you can yet again blame this horror story on nationalized health care.

Doctors refused treatment because, in Britain, an infant born before 22 weeks is not allowed treatment under British law. The government says that it isn’t in the baby’s best interests — I suppose just letting them die is more ethical, rather than wasting precious government time and money fighting to save their lives.

Doctors left a premature baby to die because he was born two days too early, his devastated mother claimed yesterday. Sarah Capewell begged them to save her tiny son, who was born just 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy – almost four months early. They ignored her pleas and allegedly told her they were following national guidelines that babies born before 22 weeks should not be given medical treatment.

Miss Capewell, 23, said doctors refused to even see her son Jayden, who lived for almost two hours without any medical support. She said he was breathing unaided, had a strong heartbeat and was even moving his arms and legs, but medics refused to admit him to a special care baby unit. Miss Capewell is now fighting for a review of the medical guidelines.

Medics allegedly told her that they would have tried to save the baby if he had been born two days later, at 22 weeks. In fact, the medical guidelines for Health Service hospitals state that babies should not be given intensive care if they are born at less than 23 weeks. The guidance, drawn up by the Nuffield Council, is not compulsory but advises doctors that medical intervention for very premature children is not in the best interests of the baby, and is not ‘standard practice’. James Paget Hospital in Norfolk refused to comment on the case but said it was not responsible for setting the guidelines relating to premature births. A trust spokesman said: ‘Like other acute hospitals, we follow national guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine regarding premature births.’ Miss Capewell, who has had five miscarriages, said the guidelines had robbed her son of a chance of life.

She said: ‘When he was born, he put out his arms and legs and pushed himself over. A midwife said he was breathing and had a strong heartbeat, and described him as a “little fighter”. I kept asking for the doctors but the midwife said, “They won’t come and help, sweetie. Make the best of the time you have with him”.’ She cuddled her child and took precious photos of him, but he died in her arms less than two hours after his birth. Miss Capewell, who has a five-year-old daughter Jodie, went into labour in October last year at 21 weeks and four days after suffering problems during her pregnancy. She said she was told that because she had not reached 22 weeks, she was not allowed injections to try to stop the labour, or a steroid injection to help to strengthen her baby’s lungs. Instead, doctors told her to treat the labour as a miscarriage, not a birth, and to expect her baby to be born with serious deformities or even to be still-born.

She told how she begged one paediatrician, ‘You have got to help’, only for the man to respond: ‘No we don’t.’ As her contractions continued, a chaplain arrived at her bedside to discuss bereavement and planning a funeral, she claims. She said: ‘I was sitting there, reading this leaflet about planning a funeral and thinking, this is my baby, he isn’t even born yet, let alone dead.’ After his death she even had to argue with hospital officials for her right to receive birth and death certificates, which meant she could give her son a proper funeral.

… Guidance limiting care of the most premature babies provoked outrage when it was published three years ago. Experts on medical ethics advised doctors not to resuscitate babies born before 23 weeks in the womb, stating that it was not in the child’s ‘best interests’. The guidelines said: ‘If gestational age is certain and less than 23+0 (i.e at 22 weeks) it would be considered in the best interests of the baby, and standard practice, for resuscitation not to be carried out.’ Medical intervention would be given for a child born between 22 and 23 weeks only if the parents requested it and only after discussion about likely outcomes. The rules were endorsed by the British Association of Perinatal Medicine and are followed by NHS hospitals.

So, as she was going into labor, doctors refused to halt the labor or to give Jayden steroid injections to strengthen his lungs and give him a better chance to live. And after he was born, she had to fight with the doctors to give her a birth and death certificate because she should simply write the birth of her son off as a miscarriage, even though he was born alive, heart beating, and lived for almost two hours. To doctors following the orders of British bureaucrats, being born with a heartbeat is apparently no longer enough to qualify a child as “alive”.

In Britain, where socialized health care is firmly in place, doing everything you can to save a life is not important. What is important is following regulations put in place to save the government time and money.

Here is a picture of baby Jayden — as you can see, he was a perfect little baby. Not deformed. Not disabled. Not with his skin peeling off, which was another prediction doctors made.

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The chances of Jayden surviving may have been slim, but at least one infant has been born younger than Jayden and lived. And there was undoubtedly the possibility that Jayden could have lived, if doctors had only been willing to honor the Hippocratic Oath they took and did all they could to try to save his life. And what’s worse, Jayden is surely not the only baby in Britain that this has happened to. Sarah Capewell is now trying to change the legislation, starting with a petition to the Prime Minister and a Justice for Jayden march at the end of this month.

Now, many of you may wonder what this story has to do with us here in the United States. Well, thanks to Obama’s government run health care bill that Democrats are trying to force on us, it’s entirely possible that horror stories like this one could start occuring here. Consider the fact that Obama voted not once, not twice, but three times against a bill requiring doctors to provide treatment to babies who survive abortions. What kind of compassion do you honestly think he would have for babies like Jayden, especially if he’s successful in implementing his government run health care reform? Babies like Jayden would be just like the elderly to him — too expensive, a waste of time, and a drain on the system. It’s one more reason why we need to keep the pressure on lawmakers in Washington to, for once in their feeble, pathetic lives, actually grow a spine, listen to their constituents, and do the right thing.

If you don’t, then there’s a good likelihood that we could see the same regulations forced onto us that are forced onto citizens in Britain, and it might not be someone else’s child you’re reading about online.

Hat Tip: Right Wing News

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4 Comments
  • To add another issue: infant mortality rates. In the United States, any baby born alive (i.e. heartbeat) is counted as having been born alive, even if it has no chance of survival. Other countries only count the birth as a birth (as opposed to a miscarriage or a still birth) if the baby is beyond a certain weight (usually about 2.5 pounds) or gestational time. This disparity makes our infant mortality statistics look horrible, even though you’re much, much better off being born premature in the US than in Cuba.

  • BobV says:

    Roxeanne: interesting, I hadn’t heard that before.

    I had thought the infant mortality rates (putting us below some third world countries) didn’t look right.

  • Angela says:

    After a fall during my “19th” week of gestation with my son, I experienced severe cramping. The medical advise was to try to hold out another week because they would do nothing for my baby until I had passed 20 weeks gestation. Miraculously my cramping subsided and my son was born on his ‘due date’ only to be deemed ‘4 to 7 days’ over due by the midwife who delivered him. This is in Canada. Its frightening to think that if my son had been born immediately after my fall, he would have been arbitrarily deemed not worthy of treatment based on someone’s inaccurate GUESS.

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