Mother's complaint over Walsall hospital's 'neglect' in care of her young son
A mother has lodged a complaint with the NHS Trust which runs Walsall Manor Hospital, claiming staff 'neglected' her son while he was in their care.
Sarah Powell, of Cannock, believes doctors did not do enough to help her son Kyle as he battled with pyloric stenosis at the age of just one week.
Kyle was in hospital for a fortnight, during which time Mrs Powell says she had 'no help'.
Mrs Powell said a doctor eventually saw Kyle and diagnosed his condition in 30 minutes.
He was then moved to Birmingham Children's Hospital, where he was nursed back to health.
However, Mrs Powell has lodged a complaint with Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust and says she wants to 'stop anyone else from having to go through this'.
She said: "I will not just accept an apology because I believe the way me and my son were treated was appalling.
"It took one doctor 30 minutes to see what was wrong with him and I owe that doctor my sons life.
"But what about the other two weeks when we were sat there, not getting the help we needed.
"I watched my son deteriorate in front of me and that is not right.
"He lost all of his weight and I genuinely thought I was going to lose him."
Kyle was born five weeks premature but despite that he had been adjusting to life at home well until the first signs of his pyloric stenosis came to the surface.
As he began having trouble taking down liquids, his mother took him to the hospital, where her ordeal began.
She said: "I think they neglected him at the hospital and I don't want anyone else to go through what I had to go through.
"I am not sure how far I can get with my complaint and it certainly can't undo what happened but I want people to be aware of what can happen.
"I felt like I had to fight to get the proper care for my son, who was just one week old and needed help."
She complained in April but has so far only received an acknowledgement letter.
Rachel Overfield, director of nursing at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, said: "We are aware of the formal complaint by Ms Powell and are currently investigating and compiling a response. We cannot comment on individual cases due to patient confidentiality, however, we have endeavoured to keep Ms Powell updated with the progress throughout. We are sorry that Ms Powell feels that there has been an unnecessary delay."
