Deaths of three babies could “realistically” have been avoided, Scottish inquiry concludes

Hospitals in Scotland should create a “trigger list” to identify symptoms that might indicate preterm labour, a judge has recommended after the deaths of three newborn babies.1

A fatal accident inquiry launched into the deaths of Leo Lamont, Ellie McCormick, and Mira-Belle Bosch in 2019 and 2021 found that in all three cases hospital staff did not immediately act on warning signs of a preterm or difficult birth.

Sheriff Principal Aisha Anwar called on all health boards that provide maternity services to review their practices and guidelines for the identifying and managing preterm labour. Other recommendations in her report include creating an automatically generated critical alert if a mother has had a previous preterm labour, a review of electronic records, and a direct telephone line to maternity units for ambulance crews.

In the first case, Leo Lamont died two hours after birth on 15 February 2019. His mother, Nadine Rooney, who was about …