Woman has healthy baby after being told foetus was dead

A mother who was told her unborn baby was dead has successfully given birth after insisting medics performed a second scan.

Hazel Wiggins, from Prudhoe, Northumberland, had been told her child had died and had returned to hospital to begin taking a series of abortion pills.

But as medics at Hexham General Hospital insisted she took the tablets she demanded they performed another scan.

She told the Evening Chronicle: “They kept saying that I needed to take the tablets and I said that I didn’t want to. I told them I wanted another scan. It went on for about 20 minutes.”

Eventually she convinced the midwives to perform another scan, which to their shock showed her baby was fit and well.

The 36-year-old has now given birth to baby Amelia and has received a full apology from the NHS trust, who said they had made changes to their procedure.

They said that two scans were now always performed when there were concerns about a foetus.

Dr Eliot Sykes, clinical director of emergency surgery and elective care at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We have recently met with Mrs Wiggins and her husband to apologise wholeheartedly for the unnecessary distress caused following the misinterpretation of her initial scan with us at Hexham General Hospital last year.”