TRAGIC LOSS
Holly Willoughby fights back tears as grieving mum appears on This Morning following shocking maternity scandal report
HOLLY Willoughby was close to tears today when a grieving mum said that she had been left "bitter" after she was refused a caesarean in hospital and her baby boy died.
Debbie Greenway bravely spoke on This Morning after a report found more than 200 babies needlessly died at Midlands hospitals in the biggest maternity scandal in NHS history.
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An investigation was launched after bereaved families doggedly campaigned for a probe into the errors.
Debbie shared her ordeal with mum-of-three Holly, 41, and viewers following Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid saying he was "deeply sorry to all the families who have suffered so greatly."
Asked if an apology helped, Debbie replied: "Without sounding bitter, we expect people to apologise, that’s what they are going to do when confronted with what has happened, it doesn’t change what has happened for 20 years."
Viewers heard how Debbie was repeatedly told by doctors that she should try to deliver her twin babies naturally.
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But by the second day of labour, the midwife was worried for one of the babies, called John.
She said a number of times that Debbie should be having a caesarean, but by the time doctors finally decided to opt for an emergency C-section, baby John had suffered a catastrophic brain injury.
The boy had no pulse when he was born and Debbie said she hadn't realised he had died when he was placed in her arms after efforts to resuscitate him failed.
Holly welled up, as her co-host Phillip Schofield asked: "Could it have been avoided?"
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Debbie said "absolutely" and explained John's brain damage occurred at least 24 hours after she had gone to hospital.
She said about the damning report: "It is the watershed moment for the whole thing, that has been going on for years and years.
"You know, how proud they were that they had the lowest caesarean rates in the country, that shouldn’t be the culture."
The report released today found dozens of mums and babies died in two decades of medical failures at scandal-hit NHS hospitals.
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An inquiry by top midwife Donna Ockenden today lifted the lid on a litany of devastating errors at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.
It found maternity units were short-staffed for years and bosses refused to take responsibility for mistakes.
Alongside the tragic deaths, 94 babies suffered life-changing brain injuries as a result of “catastrophic” care.
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