Next month, Alison and Justin Clark should have been celebrating their son Sebastian’s second birthday. Instead, they will gather around an apricot tree where his ashes lay buried.
Sebastian died at four days old due to a catastrophic brain injury following ‘lamentable’ failings (coroner Dr Sean Cummings’s words) at Kingston Hospital in South West London.
Had maternity staff done their jobs properly, Sebastian would have been blowing out the candles on his birthday cake this March.
Devastated: Alison and Justin Clark are bereft at the needless loss of their son, Sebastian
Together for a few special moments: Alison and Justin Clark with their son, Sebastian
But Alison, now 32, who had developed an infection, was left in labour for 32 hours, despite her and Justin’s repeated requests for an emergency caesarean. Sebastian was eventually delivered with forceps when his heart rate began to drop.
He did not breathe for 26 minutes after his birth and died in his parents’ arms once they had taken the heartbreaking decision to withdraw his life support. Without the machines, he survived for only four hours.
‘One of the nurses said he might be able to pick up sound, so we were cradling him and telling him how proud of him we were,’ says Alison today. ‘That day was one of the happiest of our lives. You’re not delusional — you know the situation is not good — but we were so excited to be together, just the three of us.
‘Finally, we could hold him and actually see his face without all the tubes. He was so soft, so chubby, so . . .’ Tears well up and Justin, 30, reaches for his wife’s hand.
‘We’d already cried about the fact that he was coming off life support,’ says Justin. ‘We had to put that to one side. We didn’t want him to be sad. We had to find a way to enjoy it because that’s all we had.’
Last month, an inquest heard that Sebastian died of multiple organ failure and a lack of oxygen to the brain after developing an infection — acute chorioamnionitis — during Alison’s prolonged labour. West London coroner Dr Cummings criticised ‘a lamentable number of individual failings, both in terms of assessing the available information . . . and communicating that to staff’.
He pointed to ‘inadequate leadership’ and complacency in managing Alison’s labour and its effect on her baby.
Tragic: The baby boy did not breathe for 26 minutes after his birth and died in his parents’ arms once they had taken the heartbreaking decision to withdraw his life support
Suffering: Alison, now 32, who had developed an infection, was left in labour for 32 hours, despite her and Justin’s repeated requests for an emergency caesarean
‘I’m so angry with the individuals at the hospital who let Sebby down,’ says Alison. ‘How can they continue in their jobs? That’s something I struggle with a lot. Their actions killed our son. Why are they not in jail?’
Eight months ago, Alison gave birth to twins Arthur and George. The little boys bring the couple huge joy, but they continue to grieve for the twins’ older brother.
This is the first interview Justin, an IT worker from Texas, and Alison, who works for the NHS in primary mental health care, have given following their son’s wholly avoidable death.
It comes soon after a report by the Care Quality Commission raised concerns about the ‘disappointing’ NHS care received during and after childbirth, with a quarter of women feeling the support they got was sadly wanting.
‘We had a shocking lack of support,’ says Alison. ‘A bereavement midwife showed up twice before being signed off work, and no one followed up. We didn’t know who to go to.
When your baby dies, you’re grieving a life that could have been, not a life that was. You don’t have all those times you’ve shared to hold on to
‘When your baby dies, you’re grieving a life that could have been, not a life that was. You don’t have all those times you’ve shared to hold on to. You’re left with a lot of “what-ifs”. I was desperately trying to find someone to help me get through it — and there was no one there. I vividly remember wanting to grab strangers on the street and say: “Help me. I don’t know how to live. Help.” ’
The Clarks’ lawyer, Tim Deeming, of Tees Law, is rightly incensed by the way his clients have been so woefully let down. He says: ‘Anyone suffering as Justin and Alison did should, as a matter of course, receive prompt, appropriate support and counselling. The NHS needs to ensure sufficient funding is in place at every hospital to provide this for families.
‘Sadly, nothing will bring Sebby back, but we have a duty to ensure that there is a lasting legacy for him and all the other Sebbys.
‘We would ask that every hospital reconsiders the availability of free counselling support for as long as it is needed.’
The Clarks met in Texas in 2015 at a mutual friend’s wedding. They married in the U.S. 11 months later and celebrated their vows in June 2016 on a farm near Alison’s childhood home in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire. When, a few weeks later, she discovered she was pregnant, they were ecstatic.
Justin’s parents are both dead and he wanted nothing more than to start a family of his own.
Loss: This is the first interview Justin, an IT worker from Texas, and Alison, who works for the NHS in primary mental health care, have given following their son’s wholly avoidable deat
Then and now: Alison and her son, Sebastian, whose ashes are planted with this apricot tree
‘Sebby used to wriggle around like crazy in the last months of the pregnancy,’ says Justin. ‘Alison wanted me to rub her tummy at night when he kicked. She felt it gave him reassurance. I thought it was silly at the time, but now I’m glad we did it.’
Alison’s waters broke at 11pm on March 6, 2017. They went to Kingston Hospital where she had a ‘sweep’ — a procedure that widens the cervix to encourage birth — and were sent home.
The inquest would hear that a sweep can ‘activate’ bacteria
