A mum who gave birth by caesarean section has been awarded £30,000 in compensation – after blundering doctors left a SWAB inside her for 22 DAYS.
Amy Callaghan, 28, has been told she might be left infertile after the cock-up.
The sales manager was in agony after she had the operation to deliver her daughter Tegan on December 2, 2007.
Three days after she was discharged from Coventry’s University Hospital she noticed a large lump in her abdomen but a midwife told her it was a ‘displaced uterus’.
But after Amy’s health deteriorated she was rushed back to hospital on Christmas Eve – 22 days later – where surgeons discovered the swab.
Amy, from Rugby, Warks., sued the hospital for negligence and was awarded £30,000 in an out-of-court settlement.
Today she said: ”The birth of my first child should have been a time of great excitement but instead it turned into a nightmare.
”I was so ill after Tegan was born. I was trying my best to be a good mum but I was in such agony that I hardly had the strength to look after myself let alone her.
”I’m very angry that all the pain and heartache I suffered was caused by such a basic error which should never have been allowed to happen.
”To think that I might be unable to have any more children because of a basic mistake is extremely upsetting.”
Guy Forster, a medical negligence expert with Irwin Mitchell Solicitors who represented Amy, said: ”There was clearly a fundamental failure to properly care for Amy during the initial surgery.
”In addition to the need for an emergency operation, Amy has been left traumatised and is at a greater risk of developing problems in the future.”