Doctors waited 10 hours to deal with my child… however by then he was useless

Courtney Perkins and Elliott Garrett always wanted a baby. The couple were ready to settle down and start a family. Elliott worked in pest control and Courtney was a carer.

In 2021, they sadly lost a baby around Christmas at five weeks. But the following year, Courtney became pregnant again. The couple, both then-24, were overjoyed. It was a boy and they had already decided on a name: Reggie.

For Courtney, a type 1 diabetic, any pregnancy was high risk. But no one foresaw what happened during her pregnancy.

At 34 weeks, she was suffering from influenza when she realised she couldn’t feel Reggie moving as much any more. Elliott’s mother rushed her to hospital. They were meant to go to King’s College but Lewisham was the closest.

They arrived at around 10.45am and Courtney told doctors she wanted them to check Reggie’s heartbeat. Courtney and Elliott’s mother frantically asked again and again but the response was always the same: ‘Someone is coming’.

When doctors finally checked Reggie’s heartbeat at around 9pm, he was already dead. No one had checked his little heart for ten whole hours and now it was too late. Later, the NHS Trust would admit to lapses and failures, and apologise to Courtney and Elliott.

But at the time, it was just the first of a litany of errors inflicted on the already heartbroken couple. From nurses sitting around as Courtney projectile vomited to others who laughed during their stillborn tragedy, the young couple were put through every parent’s worst nightmare.

It wasn’t their fault. But as they told MailOnline, for the rest of their lives they will wonder if there’s anything they could have done to save their baby boy.

They hope he didn’t suffer and that he passed away peacefully. With tears welling in his eyes, Elliott sobbed: ‘I will never know.’ Courtney, sitting beside him in their flat with their son Harrison, who was born after the tragedy, added: ‘Reggie’s cause of death was starvation of oxygen. He suffocated inside me, where he should have been safe. I blame myself.’

The couple is planning to sue Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust for the failings it has admitted to. But nothing will get them back their little boy or rid them of the horrible memories of what was to follow.

Their ‘nightmare’ began just before Christmas, on December 20, 2022. 

Courtney told MailOnline: ‘After the doctors couldn’t find a heartbeat, there was no sympathy at all.

‘They didn’t even say ”sorry there’s no heartbeat”.

‘Then on December 23, they started to induce labour. Even then there was no compassion from the midwife.

‘They didn’t let anyone in the room. He didn’t give an explanation. Just ”no family allowed”.

‘When I got there, I was left in the room with the door open for me to hear other babies crying and see them checking babies’ heartbeats.’

She added: ‘Why has it taken a life lost to see that the hospital’s systems are broken?’

Last year, Courtney gave birth to a beautiful baby boy called Harrison, this time at King’s College hospital – yet the couple are still scarred by the stillbirth and the litany of errors doctors, midwives and nurses made.

They blame themselves for not being able to save their son, and are reminded of what he would have been like as they care for their other child. 

Courtney’s heartbroken fiancé Elliott also revealed the pain they face on a daily basis.

In tears, he told MailOnline: ‘I was a wreck. I couldn’t face anything. I didn’t answer the phone.

‘I wanted to kill myself. I was watching cars, buses, lorries and I thought, one step and that’s it. I have never felt so alone.

‘I have had days when I’m not myself. The Elliott that people know isn’t there. I don’t recognise myself.

‘I’m going to live the rest of my life without a life that I helped make.

‘Why do I get to live mine but Reggie doesn’t? 

‘I always said I couldn’t wait to take Reggie to see Charlton Football Club play. I will never get to do that. 

‘It’s hard because of your daily activities. I push Harrison on the swings and I think, ”Your brother should be there with you”.

‘It’s not just a physical trauma, it’s a mental one. I’ve had nightmares and flashbacks – reliving memories of walking down the church aisle carrying Reggie.

‘I relive it all the time. All we have are photos. We go to the cemetery every week. That’s how we are going to see our son.

‘The first time we took Harrison, I bawled my eyes out. 

‘I have got this person around me, this little life and I see what Reggie would have been. 

‘You don’t find comfort. You put on a fake smile. It’s a torment.

‘My whole world fell apart. Not even we could protect him for the people who were meant to look after him. 

‘I used to think, ”Is it something I have done? What if it’s something wrong with my body?”

‘It’s neither of us and we know that but we can’t help thinking it’s something we have done. 

‘He suffocated. That’s a long process. I sit there and wonder, did he feel pain? I will never know.

‘Why was it left that long? Had they done a scan, would it have been a different story?

‘Why couldn’t they do that? I can’t make sense of why it cost us our son.

‘How many times before has this happened?

‘I will never understand it.’

He added: ‘At the hospital, it was error after error after error after error. 

‘It was awful. The things they said and did – it was as if we were a burden, an inconvenience to them. 

‘I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, not my worst enemy.’

While Courtney was in labour, she started throwing up. There was no sick bowl, so Elliott went to find some help. 

He found eight nurses but none of them would help because they were doing a handover for the evening.

Elliott said: ‘There were eight people sitting there.

‘My partner was projectile vomiting. They said, ”We will be there when we are finished – find them yourself.”

‘It felt like because we were not going to take Reggie home, others were the priority.

‘Then when Reggie came out, his head was stuck. They just yanked him out and dumped him on Courtney.’

Courtney added: ‘Now I have had Harrison, I know it’s different. With Reggie it was like they wanted it over and done with.’

Elliott said: ‘With Harrison, they cleaned him, wrapped him, then handed him over.

‘With Reggie everything was rushed. It was awful. When I was outside the room, a midwife told me, ”Congratulations, Christmas will never be the same for you again”.

‘I said, ”I don’t give a f*** about Christmas.” That room is allocated for stillbirths. They should know. It was clear we were distressed.’

The couple were shocked at the lack of sympathy after they had lost their child.

After Courtney gave birth, one of the nurses mentioned that usually parents are given a remembrance box for their child.

After a few hours, they received theirs. There were two metal butterflies. One was buried with Reggie and the other is on Elliott’s chain.

Then there was space for a lock of his hair – but hospital staff didn’t have scissors for them to cut some off, forcing them to find their own.

A nurse later came by. Elliott said: ‘Laughing, she asked, ”do you want a little hat for the box?”’

Elliott said he was shocked ‘to not get so much as an ”I’m sorry for your loss” or anything.’

He added: ‘The questions we wanted answered – we never got a straight answer from anyone.

‘It’s never going to go away. When we were ready for him to be taken down I asked, ”Can we walk to the mortuary to be with my son one last time?”

‘They said no. I later found out from the mortician there’s no such policy.

‘That [chance] got taken away from me. The smallest of coffins was the heaviest of weights.’

The horror of Reggie’s death affects Courtney’s relationship with Harrison. 

‘I have postpartum anxiety,’ she said. ‘No matter what he does, I think he’s going to die.

‘Why was there no investigation into the people, not just the Trust? 

‘It was like they were making it up as they went along. There have been a lot of lies.’ 

In the hospital’s investigation report into the tragedy, it admitted to ‘lapses’ and apologised for Reggie’s death and that the Trust ‘did not meet the standards for best practice’.

It promised to implement an action plan ‘to help improve patient safety for future women’.

The Trust said: ‘There should have been Obstetric input into your case sooner. A Full clinical assessment that took into consideration all of your risk factors did not occur and the opportunity for early Obstetric review was missed. The Trust would like to apologise that this occurred.’

It added: ‘It is difficult to say if an Obstetric review had happened sooner the outcome would have been different. There should have been Obstetric input sooner and the Trust would like to apologise that your case did not meet the standards for best practice.’ 

The trust said its investigation had ‘identified that the system for making and receiving referrals between A&E and maternity was not clear enough or as established as it should have been.’

A Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust spokesman said: ‘We are deeply saddened by Reggie’s death and recognise the lasting impact this has had on Courtney, Elliott, and their wider family. This was a complex and distressing case for all involved and Courtney was very ill when she arrived at our hospital.

‘Following Reggie’s death, the Trust undertook a thorough investigation of their care. This identified that the system for making and actioning referrals between A&E and maternity was not clear enough or as established as it should have been. 

‘As a result, we have taken steps to improve our processes, including developing our guidelines for caring for pregnant women who attend our emergency department and improving communication between the two areas.

‘We’re also launching a new maternity charter that will address Courtney’s concerns about compassion and communication. We recognise that these actions cannot change this outcome but hope they provide future assurances.

‘We are truly sorry for what happened to Reggie, Courtney, and their family and would like to reiterate the apology made in the report for lapses identified in their care.’

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