GRIEVING parents have claimed bank holiday staffing issues contributed to the death of their miracle baby boy.
Little Cassian Curry died two days after being born at Sheffield Teaching Hospital's Jessop Wing maternity unit.
He passed away on April 3, 2021, after weighing just 1lb 10oz at 28 weeks.
An inquest is currently being held into his death at the maternity unit.
In a statement read to the hearing in Sheffield, Cassian's mum, Karolina Curry, said she and husband James had a number of questions about her son's treatment.
They want answers over reports the unit was understaffed due to it being the Easter weekend, and that medics didn't act on her concerns about her son.
Mrs Curry said: "We still can't get our heads around any of this and how a bank holiday means your child dies.
"We cannot understand why they can't have life-saving checks or the right number of staff because of a bank holiday."
She described her son as "a miracle for us". The pair had been desperate for children after six cycles of IVF, needed due to James' cancer.
He had been born very early, and placed on total parental nutrition (TPN),
The inquest is looking into if the catheter to deliver this was put in too close to the little boy's heart.
Mrs Curry said she had also twice seen her son's heart rate go to over 200 beats per minutes, but says she was told it wasn't anything to worry about.
Another concern she had was that Cassian hadn't had any bowel movements, and therefore wasn't feeding properly.
She said she got more and more worried but a nurse told her "It's all right, love, it's normal."
In the statement Mrs Curry also relived her horror when she went to the intensive care unit and find doctors battling in vain to save her son.
She said: "I tried to scream but nothing came out.
"I looked at the doctors and nurses and I can only describe the looks on their faces as horrified.
"I couldn't speak. I was opening my mouth but nothing was coming out. James said it was like a silent scream."
PARENT'S PAIN
Previous studies have found patients who go into hospital at the weekend have an increased risk of death.
This is often referred to as the "weekend effect". While reduced staffing could be an issue, research last year found it could be due to a lack of GP services and community healthcare.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) identified significant patient safety concerns in March 2021 - a month before Cassian died.
It didn't have enough midwifery staff with the “right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep women safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment”, the CQC said.
This saw the rating of the maternity services at the trust downgraded to inadequate.
Earlier this month, inspectors announced the trust had failed to make the required improvements to services when it visited in October and November, despite warnings.
Mrs Curry said: "We still feel the guilt today for unknowingly putting him in so much danger
"The whole process from when Cassian was born to his death had just seemed chaotic."
Assistant coroner Abigail Combes said the CQC's findings will be referred to in the inquest but stressed that the two inquiries had different remits.
Dr Jennifer Hill, medical director at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We know that no apology will lessen the pain of Cassian’s death for his parents and family, but we are so very sorry for what happened, and we have already provided Mr and Mrs Curry with a full explanation of what happened and the changes we have made since his death.
“Whilst staffing numbers on the Neonatal Unit that weekend were appropriate and within national recommendations it was busy and regrettably there was human error in terms of the management of Cassian’s umbilical venous catheter. This was a very rare incident, and everyone involved in Cassian’s care is devastated.
“There has been a full review of what happened, and changes have already been made to limit the chances of this happening again.”
The inquest is expected to conclude on Friday.
