Medical staff discover comatose woman's stillborn baby

6 Sep 2009, 2:43 pm   -   Source: AAP
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West Australian health officials are investigating after a woman in hospital with swine flu gave birth to a stillborn baby without hospital staff noticing.

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West Australian health officials are investigating after a woman in hospital with swine flu gave birth to a stillborn baby without hospital staff noticing.
           
Sharon May was just under six months pregnant and in an induced coma in the intensive care unit of Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, media reports say.
           
She was being treated for pneumonia and swine flu.
           
It was reported she gave birth to a stillborn boy, which was found later in her bed.
           
Her husband Danny May said the hospital should have been treating two patients - his wife and their child.
           
"My wife is still alive and I'm grateful here for that," he told Sky News.
           
"The question I'm asking is: there were two patients, where was the necessary things for Angus?"
           
The hospital says Ms May was given all appropriate treatment.
           
"It was appropriate and, additionally, you must recognise that swine flu is a serious illness in pregnant women and that we have had adverse outcomes of death," Dr Shirley Bowen told Sky News.
           
The WA Health Minister Kim Hames has called the death tragic and says it will be investigated by two health committees, ABC Radio reports.
           
State opposition health spokesman Roger Cook has expressed his sympathy to the family and staff.
           
"There's outrage ... we will learn from the circumstances in which we find ourselves and that we can avert these situations in the future," he told ABC radio.
           
Lawyers for the family have called for a full coroner's investigation, Sky News reports.
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