Inquest into death of Terry Forster returns natural causes verdict

05 Nov 2008

An inquest in Birmingham has returned a verdict of natural causes after investigating how a 13 hour old premature baby died from a ruptured liver.

The family’s solicitor, Caroline Stokes, from the Birmingham office of Irwin Mitchell, said: “Kerry Morris and Robert Forster have been devastated by the death of their son Terry and are disappointed by the Coroner’s verdict today. 

“Whilst the inquest established some of the circumstances surrounding Terry’s tragic death, many questions remain unanswered and notwithstanding today’s verdict, the family intend to pursue legal action against the Trust. 

“In particular, Kerry and Robert remain concerned about the decision to deliver Terry at Sandwell Hospital, the competence of the medical staff performing his intubation and reintubation, and the apparent delay in arranging to transfer Terry to Birmingham Children’s Hospital for surgery.”

Terry Forster was born on the 5th July 2007 at Sandwell Hospital. He was 13 weeks premature and delivered by caesarean section. Several hours after birth he was transferred to the neonatal unit at Birmingham’s City Hospital, where doctors found that he had a bleed in his abdomen.  The hospital didn’t have the necessary neonatal equipment to operate on Terry, so couldn’t operate. Such equipment was available at Birmingham Children’s Hospital but by this point baby Terry was too unwell to be transferred.

Doctors told Terry’s parents, Kerry Morris and Robert Forster, of West Bromwich, that there was no hope of survival. The parents decided to remove Terry from the ventilator and he died just after 1.00am on July 6th 2007.  A post mortem found that Terry’s liver had been ruptured.

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