"Child birth and subsequent complications"

I was admitted to Blackpool Victoria Hospital delivery suite as I had been having contractions for over 48 hours.

When initially checked I was told that I had dilated 4 cm and I was put on a bed in a room on the delivery suite and hooked up to be induced. I was restricted mostly to staying on the bed because of the monitoring equipment and the drug to induce me. I was left with my husband for most of the time and no one checked how much I had dilated until 4 hours later when my baby's heartbeat dropped to a dangerously low rate. Suddenly the room was full of people and a nurse tried to move me from side to side on the bed to improve my baby's position and stress. This was to no avail and panic began to begin but I was relatively calm as they had given me gas and air. My partner was very distressed.

I was told that a Cesarean was necessary and the rushed me on the bed to the theatre. I was told to sit on the bed for spinal injection and then told to lie down for a General anesthetic. As I laid there someone shouted that the "short blade knife" was missing and then someone else found it. It was passed overhead, in front of my face before I lost consciousness.

My son was born healthy and I returned to the maternity ward. I told staff the next day that I had a lot of abdominal pain and I was moved to a private room. my pain continued to increase over the next 24 hours and I could not bear it any more. All they kept giving me was gripe water. 72 hours after theatre they tried to give me a rectal examination which made me scream. At 9pm I was taken for a scan and told afterwards that I had a twisted bowel that was about to burst. I was rushed to theatre with call-out staff in attendance. I was so scared that I hastily wrote a will.

I had half my bowel removed and was in hospital for almost another week, initially on a high dependency ward. My baby went home with his father long before I could, which was heart-breaking. I never heard any more from the hospital until I wrote a complaint. I had no aftercare.

I've had professional medical consultants who have told me that, given my health prior to this incident, it is very likely that the twisted bowel was caused by the botched Cesarean operation.