It was the worst thing anyone can imagine happening, we left that hospital with no baby and no answers

Parents speak out after inquiry finds staff shortages and failures contributed to death of their newborn baby girl

- HANNAH RODGER

The Cambuslang parents of a baby who died at Scotland’s largest hospital have told how they felt blamed for the death of their daughter.

Tiny Freya Murphy was born with significant brain and organ damage after a catalogue of failures at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow led to her death.

Her parents Karen and Martin were devastated when they had to allow Freya's life support machines to be switched off when she was just seven days old.

A Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) found staffing shortages, medics’ failure to notice that the baby was in distress as well as a lack of screening for Group B Streptococcus were factors in the youngster’s death.

However the couple have said they have been left with more questions than answers after the FAI that took seven years to conclude.

Dad Martin, 44, said: “It was the worst thing anyone could imagine happening to them. We left that hospital with no baby and no answers.”

Karen, 40, says she had expressed the wish to have a natural birth in the early stages of her pregnancy.

However she felt this was later “held against her” when the FAI medics suggested her wishes as a reason why they failed to intervene sooner during her labour, claiming Karen had said she wanted 'minimal intervention'. She disputes this.

Karen, a teacher of children with additional support needs, said: “I wanted to have as natural a birth as possible which was noted down during the pregnancy and not mentioned again.

"Then suddenly it was mentioned by doctors during the FAI where it came across as an excuse or a defence for the fact they had made mistakes with Freya’s birth as it was only mentioned years later.

“I would never, and did not, say I didn’t want help. I wanted to do whatever was needed to get Freya out safely and I accepted whatever they told me at the hospital. It felt as if I was being blamed for what happened.”