AN ANDOVER mother was left terrified that she might not see her children again after she says hospital staff failed to take her pregnancy seriously.

In February this year Amy Dumble was pregnant with her third baby and went for a routine scan at Basingstoke hospital.

She was told that her baby had implanted quite low in her uterus and was told it was possibly a caesarean scar pregnancy.

Mother-of-two Amy said: “The sonographer said not to worry at the moment we will see you in a week's time.

“I didn't have any idea what that was, so I went home and I did a lot of Googling. When I actually Googled it, it was saying how much a risk it was to myself and this baby, how I could die from it, I thought surely I can't just be left. So, I went back the following week, and I was then seen by another sonographer.”

Amy was told that nothing was wrong, and she should return for a scan at 12 weeks but, not feeling comforted by the hospital’s response, she booked a private scan at Hey Baby 4D Southampton.

“They gave me a private scan and I told them what the hospital had said and the sonographer said 'no you are definitely having a caesarean scar pregnancy and you need to tell them to see you because this is dangerous, you could die from this if you don't terminate quick enough'.”

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Basingstoke hospital were contacted but Amy claims they refused to see her, saying their notes indicated she was not experiencing the potentially life-threatening pregnancy.

The 26-year-old made a complaint to the PALS, Hampshire Hospital’s customer care department, but she was still not seen for another two weeks.

“I said you are really playing with time here because if I need to terminate, the bigger this baby is getting the riskier it is,” Amy said.

"When they finally saw me again it was 1st March, it was just lucky that I actually got scanned by a consultant and she saw the pregnancy and I just saw her face drop."

Because Amy was eight weeks along, the baby had protruded through her caesarean scar and she was not going to be able to have termination pills but would have to go through a "very risky procedure" which could lead to a hysterectomy, with a 68 per cent chance of losing her womb.

Amy was referred to University College Hospital, London, where she was given two options and was told the chance of losing her womb rose to 72 per cent if she continued with the pregnancy.

SEE ALSO: Hampshire Hospitals maternity unit told to improve by CQC after concerns raised

"One option was to terminate and the second option was to continue the pregnancy and see how far you get. The doctor said ‘we can't guarantee that there is going to be a baby at the end of this, it could be a very long-term special care situation, you could die in the pregnancy, the baby could pass away during the pregnancy, we don't know what could happen’.

"My head was all over the place, I needed a couple of days to think about things. When I came round to it, I said I want to continue to see how it goes because I'm already at risk if we do terminate today that I could die, I could haemorrhage out, I might lose my womb and it's the same odds if I continue the pregnancy but at least at the end of it I would have a baby hopefully."

Unfortunately, Amy miscarried two and half weeks later. The following day she went in for surgery at Basingstoke hospital.

Doctors were forced to carry out a caesarean and Amy lost seven litres of blood after a vessel was cut into.

She claims what followed was a lack of information about the surgery and whether her womb was removed.

She says her surgeon later told her that he “couldn’t face her” after the operation went wrong.

Fortunately for Amy her womb was saved but the doctor told her 'I can't guarantee you will ever have children again because there is so much scarring, if you thought about getting pregnant in the next few years you would probably die'.

Amy said: “It's been taken out of our control, we could possibly never be able to have children again because of their mistake, if they had just listened to me and when I rang them and told them that I had a second opinion, if they hadn't of kept brushing me under the carpet as if I was nothing none of this would have ever happened.”

Following her experience, Amy has complained to Hampshire Hospitals, which runs Basingstoke hospital, and says the hospital has taken responsibility for not following policies and an internal investigation is ongoing.

When asked what she would say to other mums going through similar experiences, Amy said: “Trust your gut. If your hospital isn't listening go elsewhere, I swear by this, I will never return to Basingstoke hospital. I will go back to Frimley Park hospital where I had my other two children."

A spokesperson from Hampshire Hospitals said: “Our maternity teams continue to work incredibly hard in order to provide the best possible care to our patients in a challenging environment. Although we are not able to comment on the care provided to individual patients, we know that there are unfortunately occasions where the high standards of care that we aim to provide have not been achieved. We are very sorry that Ms Dumble feels she did not receive this standard of care when at our hospital.

“We are committed to always seeking to improve in order to advance the quality of our maternity services and recognise that we can do more in order to further improve in these areas. We really value all feedback and we would encourage anyone with concerns about their experience to please get in touch via our customer care team (customercare@hhft.nhs.uk), as has been the case in this instance."

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