Newborn baby died at 3 days old after his nurse mother failed to control her diabetes

[Northerner]

A baby died at just three days old of organ failure after his mother failed to control her blood sugar levels throughout her pregnancy following her struggle with her diabetes, an inquest heard.

Thomas Gaskarth-Roberts was born three weeks early and had to be placed in an incubator after he was found to be 'very floppy' and didn't cry after being born. He died in Burnley General Hospital three days later.

The child's mother Joanne Gaskarth is a qualified nurse with Type 1 diabetes but often forgot to provide doctors with readings of her blood sugar levels throughout her pregnancy, but said feels she is now being blamed for his death.

She admitted she had struggled with her diabetes since being diagnosed at 24 and Burnley Coroners' Court heard doctors raised concerns that her levels of blood glucose were not being monitored properly throughout her pregnancy.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ailed-control-diabetes-properly-pregnant.html

So very sad

 

[Redkite]

This is terribly sad, and from the article it does seem like the lady was in denial and hid her true BG levels from the clinic team (or didn't actually test). At 39, perhaps she was getting desperate for a baby and thought her diabetes control would never be officially good enough to try

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Very sad, obviously the mother is being blamed. I can not understand why no one picked up she was struggling as she saw so many different people.
Just because she is a nurse doesn't mean she knows anything about diabetes or that she doesn't need extra help.
In my 50 years of diabetes I have come across very few nurses or doctors who actually know anything about diabetes let alone know how much work goes into looking after it.
If her so called team knew there was a problem then why didn't they admit her to the hospital and sort it out at an early stage.

 

[KookyCat]

Sounds to me like the medical professionals involved in this case need a better understanding of the difference between deliberate non-compliance and a psychological issue that needs further intervention. They can't force someone to control their diabetes but they must be able to identify someone who clearly isn't dealing with the situation and needs further help. The obstetrics consultant basically seem to say they couldn't call her a liar, which is right, but someone not bringing glucose records and having incongruous HBA1C results should be considered a candidate for more pushing surely. The whole patient managed part of this condition is fine because let's be honest nobody can do it for us, but if the expectation is that everyone with diabetes also acquires a superhuman ability to identify denial and other psychological issues it will continue to go wrong. The one person who never recognises denial is the one who is in the middle of it. That poor wee tot might well have had a much better chance if someone had noticed she wasn't coping for whatever reason. So very very sad.

 

[HOBIE]

Bad news which ever way you look at it 🙂 The T2 who I put right a few weeks ago NEEDs to look at things like this