Tommy was born dead. His parents are still searching for answers

Warning: This story contains graphic content.

A Perth family has been left devastated after their child was born dead, claiming his birth was a “train wreck” at Western Australia’s premier maternity hospital.

Tommy Starkie’s parents Paul and Alana told 9News Perth they were excited to welcome their fourth child to the family when they drove from Manjimup to Perth to induce labour when Alana was 38 weeks and six days pregnant in August.

Alana was admitted to Perth’s King Edward Memorial Hospital, but after more than four hours of labour, she claimed things did not feel right.

“I told the midwives, ‘Something’s gone wrong’,” she said.

“I’m in so much pain, [I said] ‘you don’t understand, we need to cut this baby out’.

“This is my fourth baby. I knew what pain to expect. I’ve had three unmedicated births and I know what my body’s doing, and it did not feel right.”

Alana claims her pleas went unanswered as her contractions slowed and stopped, and she began bleeding.

Despite vocalising that her pain was unfamiliar and extreme, Alana said her team pushed through with the birth.

Medical records showed Tommy was born not breathing and with no heart rate, and had to be resuscitated for two minutes.

In the following days, he was diagnosed with a severe brain injury – hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy – and his parents met with senior doctors.

They remain unsure about where Tommy’s birth went wrong, but believe there were mistakes made during Alana’s labour.

When Tommy became stuck due to shoulder dystocia, Alana said it took about three minutes for an obstetrician to come to the room and help.

It only took the obstetrician about 15 seconds to release Tommy’s shoulder, completing the birth.

When he finally did emerge, Alana and Paul were immediately concerned.

“He was born dead,” Alana said.

The family attempted to envision a future with Tommy, but hope began to fade.

“It was sitting by his bed through the night hoping something evolved, some movement, something,” Alana said.

“Obviously, it’s a cascading realisation of what [happened] and we couldn’t accept that – but it didn’t it didn’t get better.”

After 23 days in neonatal intensive care unit, Tommy died.

Sent home five days later, Alana and Paul were left to grieve.

“It was probably one of the hardest things to see him in there and to walk away from the crematorium, with a little box in a paper bag,” she said.

“I walked behind a tree and I vomited. It was too much.”

It was only in investigating the aftermath of the birth that Alana and Paul realised they had very little information about what happened to their baby boy.

After a check-up with her regular GP, Alana undertook an MRI, which revealed her uterus had ruptured during the labour.

It was the first Alana had heard of the tear, despite it being picked up in an ultrasound at the hospital weeks earlier.

“That’s when I received my records, and that’s when I found out that I had a uterine rupture,” she said.

“I cannot fathom why, why they didn’t tell me ... it’s a life-threatening situation, it requires emergency surgery to save both the mother and the baby if you have a uterine tear during labour.”

Alana said medical records later also revealed Tommy was “in severe distress” for more than an hour before he was born, and a second opinion indicated he should have been born an hour earlier at 8pm.

There were other risk factors, including her age and her gestational diabetes. Tommy was considered a large baby, and two of Alana’s other children were more than four kilograms when born.

Paul said the couple felt let down by the medical professionals who failed to raise the alarm, especially regarding Alana’s pain and bleeding, as well as an abnormal CTG trace.

“We had in excess of four people and not one person flagged [it].” he said.

Alana echoed her husband’s sentiments.

“They assumed nothing was going to go wrong, and so they didn’t listen, or see, or act in the face of an unfolding emergency. I am lucky to be alive, but Tommy was not,” she said.

An investigation is being carried out by the hospital and by the WA Coroner.

WA’s Director General of Health, Dr Shirley Bowen, has also met with the family and apologised.

North Metropolitan Health Service chief executive Robert Toms said the authority was sorry for the family’s grief.

“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the Starkie family for the devastating loss of their baby Tommy, we recognise this is an extremely difficult time for the family,” he said.

“We are currently undertaking a thorough investigation into the care provided, and we will share the outcome of this process with the family.

“King Edward Memorial Hospital is focused on providing the highest level of clinical care possible and we care deeply about our services for mothers and families.

“The hospital is in contact with the family and is committed to providing further support on an ongoing basis.

“We apologise sincerely to Mrs Starkie for her and her family’s distress and are deeply saddened by their loss.”

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