A baby girl died from a serious brain injury because midwives failed to provide basic medical care, a coroner has concluded.
Ida Lock, who lived for just seven days, was born at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary in November 2019 but suffered a brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen.
She was transferred to intensive care at Royal Preston Hospital’s neonatal unit where she died a week later on 16 November 2019.
Ever since her death, Ida’s grieving parents, Ryan Lock and Sarah Robinson, have had to fight for answers.
Mr Lock said the hospital’s trust “put up a huge wall” when they tried to find out what had happened.
Ms Robinson says she was made to feel like she was to blame.
“It was was awful. It was so tough. My world had shattered, and I couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong, what I’d missed.”
An initial investigation carried out by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust found no issues with her delivery.
However, in April 2020, a report from the independent Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) identified numerous failings in the care of Ida which contributed to her death, the hearing at County Hall, Preston, had previously heard.
Ryan and Ida Lock. Pic: PA
Ms Robinson says: “That’s the hurt, because that time that we’ve taken to fight and get these answers. And all along people had these answers, people knew, but they didn’t give them to us them.”
Midwives had failed to identify an abnormally slow foetal heart rate after Ms Robinson attended in early labour and then following birth there was ineffective resuscitation, the HSIB concluded.
This trust has faced serious criticism in the past.
A review into maternity care at Morecambe Bay in 2015 found 11 babies and one mother had died due to poor care.
The report’s author, Dr Bill Kirkup, gave evidence at the inquest and told Sky News it is “unforgivable” lessons have not been learnt.
He also chaired an investigation into maternity services in East Kent and found repeated and significant failings.
“These are not problems of isolated units, and it’s not a particular rogue unit that we’re talking about here. It’s a very widespread failure of culture in maternity services,” said Dr Kirkup.
Ida Lock died seven days after she was born. Pic: PA
The national maternity inspection programme carried out by the healthcare regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) assessed over 130 units.
It gave ratings for safety and found 65% rated either “inadequate” or “requires improvement”.
Mr Lock believes there must be a change in culture.
He said: “There needs to be more accountability. If people feel they can get away with being deceitful and covering up the truth, then they’re going to continue doing that.”
Ms Robinson has since had another baby daughter but says her mental health has suffered.
“It’s changed me as a person. Five years on, the anxiety, the stress, it’s just constant. No one was open and honest with us. No parent should have to go through that.”
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Ryan Lock and Sarah Robinson
The family scattered Ida’s ashes on Morecambe Beach, close to their home.
Mr Lock says they often walk along this small stretch of sand which they call “Ida’s beach”.
He said: “She’s always going to be in our hearts, and that’s what’s driven us to continue, to keep going. We owe it to her.”
Delivering a narrative conclusion following the inquest on Friday, HM Senior Coroner for Lancashire, Dr James Adeley, said: “Ida was a normal child whose death was caused by a lack of oxygen during her delivery that occurred due to the gross failure of the three midwives attending her to provide basic medical care to deliver Ida urgently when it was apparent she was in distress.”
He added her death was contributed to by the lead midwife’s “wholly incompetent” failure to provide basic neonatal resuscitation for Ida during the first three-and-half minutes of her life, which further contributed to the infant’s brain damage.
Dr Adeley identified eight missed opportunities by midwives to alter Ida’s clinical course.
Just Stop Oil is to stop throwing soup on paintings and slow marching in streets as it announces its final protest.
In a statement, the environmental campaign group said: “Just Stop Oil’s initial demand to end new oil and gas is now government policy, making us one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history.
“We’ve kept over 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground, and the courts have ruled new oil and gas licences unlawful.
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JSO protesters paint Darwin’s grave
Just Stop Oil spraying on Stonehenge in 2024. Pic: Just Stop Oil/PA
“So it is the end of soup on Van Goghs, cornstarch on Stonehenge, and slow marching in the streets. But it is not the end of trials, of tagging and surveillance, of fines, probation and years in prison.”
It added: “As corporations and billionaires corrupt political systems across the world, we need a different approach. We are creating a new strategy, to face this reality and to carry our responsibilities at this time. Nothing short of a revolution is going to protect us from the coming storms.”
Just Stop Oil has called for the British government to halt new fossil fuel projects in the UK.
The group’s actions have grabbed headlines – with campaigners having glued themselves to roads and attached themselves to infrastructure at oil facilities.
They have also disrupted sport events and vandalised famous artworks.
Hundreds of the protesters have been arrested and some have been handed lengthy jail terms.
Just Stop Oil campaigners in Edinburgh protest against Shell’s Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea in 2022. File pic: PA
Last week, nine Just Stop Oil protesters were convicted after police intervened to prevent them from gluing themselves to the runways at Heathrow Airport.
Seven of the demonstrators, aged between 26 and 61, were arrested after they were found with glue and angle grinders close to the perimeter fence of the airport in July 2024.
Earlier this month, the group’s co-founder Roger Hallam had his five-year prison sentence reduced by a year after a High Court appeal.
Hallam was jailed last July over a plot to disrupt M25 traffic, which saw 45 people climbing onto gantries over the motorway.
He was among a group of 16 activists who challenged jail terms of between 15 months and five years for their roles in four demonstrations between August and November 2022.
Ten of them had their appeals dismissed.
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A law banning ninja swords is set to come into force by summer after a “relentless” campaign by the family of a murdered teenager.
Ronan Kanda, 16, was stabbed to death with a ninja sword yards away from his home in Wolverhampton in 2022 in a case of mistaken identity.
Now, the final part of Ronan’s Law, a series of anti-knife crime measures, will make it illegal to possess, sell, make, or import ninja swords from 1 August.
Ronan Kanda, 16, was stabbed to death in Wolverhampton in 2022
The ban will be presented before parliament on Thursday and will come into force in the summer once it has gained approval.
Ronan’s mother, Pooja Kanda, has said: “Today marks a very important day for us as a family and our campaign.
“Since losing our beautiful boy Ronan, we have relentlessly campaigned for a ban on ninja swords – the lethal weapon which took his life.
“We believe ninja swords have no place in our society other than to seriously harm and kill.”
Ms Kanda added: “Each step towards tackling knife crime is a step towards getting justice for our boy Ronan.”
Anyone caught with a ninja sword in private could face six months in prison, set to increase to two years under plans in the Crime and Policing Bill.
The weapons can be handed over in knife surrender bins or local police stations under a surrender scheme running in July.
Read more: Easier for children to buy knives than paracetamol, police review finds
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Knife crime in the UK: What needs to change?
Under Ronan’s Law, the Home Office has also announced a raft of measures including making retailers report bulk or suspicious sales to police, and increasing the jail sentence for selling weapons to children, or illegal blades such as zombie knives, to two years.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “We are acting with urgency to bring forward measures to prevent deadly weapons from getting into the wrong hands and will continue to do whatever is needed to prevent young people being killed on our streets as part of our mission to halve knife crime over the next decade.”
Patrick Green, chief executive of Ben Kinsella Trust, also backed the ban, adding: “These weapons, with no practical purpose beyond violence, are simply instruments of war and have absolutely no place in our society or on our streets.”
Two teenagers – Prabjeet Veadhasa and Sukhman Shergill – were sentenced to a total of 34 years in prison for Ronan’s murder.
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