Heartbroken mum-to-be 'left to miscarry at home because hospital refused to see her'
Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
A "heartbroken" mum-to-be has claimed that she was left to miscarry at home after a hospital refused to see her.
Emily Daft's pregnancy was classed as high risk, but when she started bleeding, staff at Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre told her to stay at home.
A private scan confirmed that the 24-year-old was about to lose the baby but she was still told that she could not be seen that day.
The hospital has apologised for the distress caused.
Emily, who had previously miscarried, told Mirror.co.uk: "The only way I found out we had lost the baby was by paying.
"It was at the IVF clinic at our own cost, by the same nurse that showed us our baby's heartbeat, that we were sadly told and shown our baby had died.
(Image: Emily Daft)
"We were left absolutely heartbroken."
Emily said that she had been assured in-depth monitoring because of a complex disease and a high risk of another miscarriage.
She said that the hospital advised her to stay on her medication throughout the pregnancy - all 18 of them amounting to more than 40 tablets a day.
Due to the unknown risk factors that taking this medication could pose to her unborn child, the hospital told Emily that she would require monitoring as soon as she was pregnant, she said.
But she claims that monitoring did not happen, and when Emily was weeks pregnant, she found through a private scan that their baby's heart had stopped beating approximately two weeks earlier.
''We were supposed to be under monitoring by QMC as soon as a viable pregnancy was established but the care we were promised did not happen.
''Our GP referred us straight away, but we were then told the referral was lost in the many letters they receive - and QMC told us this was why it was not prioritised correctly.''
(Image: Nottingham Post/BPM Media)
Emily told Mirror.co.uk that she wanted to share their story to highlight the fact that the QMC has a unit specialising in early pregnancy, and yet she was refused care until after the miscarriage.
''We were refused care despite being IVF, with a history of miscarriage and several complex diseases, and being advised to stay on the 18-plus medications a day that had unknown risks.
''We were told by my midwife that we were classed as the highest risk possible... our question is why were we not monitored?
''We want change, so it doesn't happen to us, or anyone else again.
''My own parents feel so desperate to help us further, that they are paying for regular scanning in our next pregnancy.
''We now have no trust in being monitored by the NHS after the repeated failures we witnessed.
''Monitoring was the only area of my care we had hoped, pleaded, and relied on QMC for help with - and they couldn't even do that,'' Emily said.
Lucy Kean, clinical chair for obstetrics and gynaecology at QMC, said: "We send our condolences to the family and are sorry to hear of the concerns raised by Mrs Daft and for the distressed caused.
"We will be contacting Mrs Daft further so that we can better understand her experience and how we can support her and her family at this difficult time."