A FAMILY from Bridgwater have spoken of the terrifying moment their son nearly died shortly after being born in what they described as a “real life nightmare”.

Cathy Insall, 45, was left in a birthing pool full of blood as staff from Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton desperately tried to save her son Jake, who was suffering from seizures and cardiac arrests as he entered the world.

The family have spoken of their ordeal after they were awarded a five-figure compensation payout from the hospital, after a report said the efforts to save little Jake were “ineffective and chaotic.”

Baby Jake was born at the Bracken Birthing Centre on January 15, 2011, and immediately required resuscitation as he suffered from seizures and cardiac arrests.

Nurses and doctors saved Jake, and placed him under brain-cooling treatment, but he then suffered further cardiac arrests.

His parents, Cathy and Russell, then took the heartbreaking decision to withdraw Jake’s care and let him pass away, as it was feared he would not survive the night and if he did, would have suffered damaging brain injury.

However, Jake made a miraculous recovery after he suddenly started breathing spontaneously, and even fed the next morning.

Now, five years on, Jake is going from strength-to-strength and does not appear to have suffered any lasting damage, although his parents say they have been left psychologically scarred from the incident, and are both receiving therapy.

Cathy said: "The pain in the last 10-15 minutes was excruciating and far more severe than expected in childbirth. But the midwife didn’t take any notice of this.

“The birth and resuscitation was a real life nightmare and it was chaotic.

"We thought we’d lost him.

Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News:

(Jake with his two sisters, Lily and Ella)

“We had resigned ourselves to the fact that he was going to die overnight. We were obviously delighted when Jake pulled through and he seems to be growing up well at the moment.

“Going through such a traumatic experience really took its toll on both of us and Russell in particular has struggled to get over it.

“He had to close his business and we have both suffered with anxiety around Jake and his health. Hopefully now the trust has agreed a settlement they will learn from this and other parents won’t have to go through the ordeal we faced.”

The Insall family instructed expert medical negligence lawyers from Irwin Mitchell to fight their case, and a 'Serious Untoward Incident Report' found the resuscitation was 'chaotic and ineffective', emergency call processes were not correctly followed and the note keeping was 'poor'.

The report noted that despite having difficulty locating Jake’s heartbeat in the last stage of labour the midwife was not expecting him to be born in such a poor condition so there were no paediatricians present at the birth and the resuscitation Jake received was affected.

Cathy was also left unattended in the birthing pool covered in blood.

Following the payout, a spokesman for the trust said: “We are pleased that Jake is doing well given his miraculous start to life. There is always a risk of complications with any birth and our staff work hard to assess these risks and respond accordingly when things do not go as planned, or unforeseen complications arise.

“We understand that actions taken in times of an emergency can be distressing for a family to witnesses but our priority at these times has to be in saving a life wherever possible, or supporting a family to make tough decisions if they feel there is no further care they can give. Our staff deal with situations such as this regularly right across the hospital and will always do their best to support the families involved.

“We understand that the legal process can seem lengthy. The settlement was only possible after both parties had been able to narrow down issues of contention to arrive at an appropriate level of compensation that was acceptable to both parties. We are deeply sorry for the distress experienced by Jake’s family and hope that this now brings some closure for them.”

Julie Lewis, a specialist medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell said: Jake’s birth had a massive impact on the family, particularly on Russell. We should not underestimate the impact that traumatic births can have on fathers as well as the mothers.

“The note-keeping was very poor and the resuscitation itself was described as chaotic and ineffective with the emergency processes not being followed correctly.

“The family is just happy to have Jake at home but it could have been very different. It’s now crucial that the NHS Trust learns from its failures in this case to reduce the risk of similar traumatic births in future.

“It’s also really disappointing that the NHS Litigation Authority did not admit liability for the errors immediately despite the NHS Trust’s report highlighting failures during the birth. It’s meant the legal battle has been much longer than it needed to be for Cathy and Russell.”

The family will be spent on further therapy sessions for Cathy and Russell.