A family has been left “completely devastated” after a catalogue of errors at Watford General Hospital resulted in the death of their newborn baby.

Felicity Verallo-Robbins died less than seven hours after she was born in May 2015, with a coroner ruling she would probably have survived if she had been delivered by caesarean section just 80 minutes earlier.

Felicity’s mother Kathlynn said a shortage of staff, insufficient training, and a lack of access to working equipment at the hospital on the day significantly contributed towards her daughter’s untimely death.

Watford Observer:

“There is very little comfort in knowing that, had staff at the hospital done their jobs better, our beautiful girl would likely have survived. Their mistakes are something I have to live with every day,” she said.

"We are completely devastated by the death of our baby and the ongoing effect it has on every aspect of our lives, personal and professional. I don't see how I will ever get over the pain.”

Christina Gardiner, of law firm Fieldfisher, added: “Mr and Mrs Verallo-Robbins put all their trust in staff at Watford General to look after Mrs Verallo and their baby. 

“The hospital's internal investigation shows a catalogue of serious errors over the 14 hours of Mrs Verallo's labour and immediately following Felicity's birth.

“The coroner highlighted her concerns about standards of care at the hospital. I can only hope that the hospital trust will now make absolutely sure these catastrophic mistakes never happen again."

At the time of Felicity’s death, the hospital’s maternity unit was rated “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission. This was upgraded to “good” last year. 

West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs hospitals in Watford, St Albans and Hemel Hempstead, accepted that its failure of care during delivery and in Felicity’s first few hours tragically resulted in her death.

Chief nurse Tracey Carter said: “I would like to pass on my sincere apologies for the shortcomings in the treatment we provided. We are deeply sorry for the anguish this has caused.

“Following our internal investigation and an external review which we shared with the family, we have made significant changes to our practices.

“The trust aims to provide the highest quality of care to its patients and I am very sorry that this was not the case in this instance.”