Bereaved mum's anger after miscarried baby was left in Chesterfield hospital mortuary for over a year

The devastated mum, who wants to be known only as “Ellie” was given the horrendous news over the phone on Tuesday, having believed that her baby had been buried or cremated.

After receiving the phone call, she also received a letter of “sincere” apology from the hospital’s director of midwifery.

The shocked mum-of-one claims during a meeting with officials she was told the hospital first discovered what had happened six weeks ago. However they were unable to contact Ellie until this week as they were unable to reach her on the phone.

The freshly-heartbroken mum has now made arrangements with funeral directors Michael Fogg to have her baby collected and given a dignified funeral.

Ellie, 27, said: “I’m upset, I’m shocked, I’m angry, I’m hurt. I don’t know how to feel. It’s a load of emotions. After the miscarriage my health went really downhill.

"I kind of punished myself because I thought if I’d have phoned sooner then this wouldn’t have happened. I had to live with that for over a year and then to get told that, they’ve taken a year away from me. It’s back to square one.”

In August last year Ellie discovered that she had miscarried during a scan when she was 11 weeks pregnant. Two weeks later she was told by the hospital the baby had been buried or cremated.

Speaking about the miscarriage, she said: “It’s a pain you don’t know how to explain. Your heart just hurts. "You’re overwhelmed with joy and happiness and you have all these feelings.

"I have another child as well and then all of a sudden your world’s ending and you’ve got to explain and tell everybody else what’s happened."

She says the shock discovery has now taken her right back to the initial miscarriage. In the letter of apology the hospital writes: “I would like to offer you my sincere apologies that following your miscarriage you were led to believe that your baby’s remains had been sensitively disposed of when this was not the case. Your baby remains with us in our mortuary”.

The letter also confirms Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will now be carrying out a review into what happened.

Speaking about the hospital’s admission she said: “It’s horrendous, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. It’s no apology letter, it’s basically ‘we've messed up and we’ve got to make it look like we’re sorry for it’. How do you forget about a baby in a morgue? You just don’t. There’s no sorry that will ever explain that. I’ll never forgive them. I’ve never ever heard of a baby being left in a morgue, never.”

A proper funeral service for the lost baby is planned in three weeks’ time. Ellie said: “Our priority at the minute is for the baby to have some respect and dignity but I just don’t want this to happen to anybody else. What the hospital realistically want is for me to go, ‘Ok my baby’s had the funeral’ and just go about my business. They owe an explanation and to promise this won’t happen again.”

Kevin Sargen, Medical Director at Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are aware of the matter and are extremely sorry for what has happened.

"It is always a tragic situation to experience such a loss and for this, I pass on my sincere condolences to the family. “We have written to the family concerning the investigation which we are conducting.

"We can’t comment further on the outcome of this until we have concluded, but we offer assurances that we are taking this extremely seriously and will continue to liaise with the family to support them at this difficult time.”