When Poppy Russell died shortly after birth, her parents were left bereft.
What followed made matters harder to bear – her mother was blamed for the death.
An inquest would later conclude that Poppy’s death was preventable.
But instead of walking away from the trust that had failed them, Neil and Katie Russell are now working with it to bring compassionate care back into the NHS.
“We could have very easily been consumed by hate and anger and rage at what happened – and those feelings are still there,” said Katie.
“But if no change comes from what happened to Poppy, then what’s the point?”
Poppy Russell died in April 2021 at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
She was just 12 hours old.
During her pregnancy her mother told midwives that she had tokophobia, a fear of natural birth and wanted a caesarean section.
Katie said she was repeatedly told however that she “couldn’t just ask for a c-section.”
When she went into labour, Katie was induced and then “we were left in a room for long periods of time where I had no care,” she explained.
“Finally, when we got into the labour suite, I wasn’t monitored appropriately and they missed signs that Poppy was in distress.”
In a bitter irony, Poppy had to be delivered by emergency caesarean.
By then however, she had developed a hypoxic brain injury and died later the same day.
An inquest into her death found that had Poppy been born an hour earlier, she would have survived.
The Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust (SaTH), which ran the hospital, subsequently blamed Katie for her daughter’s death.
They said she had refused foetal monitoring; the inquest concluded that was untrue.
“The trust left us in an appalling position,” said Neil Russell.
“Not only were they found to have neglected our care, but in the months and years following, we uncovered that members of staff had tried to cover it up.
“Losing your daughter is one thing, but then to find that there was a cavalcade of lies was almost as bad.”
Following the inquest in 2023 the trust said: “We recognise there were failings in the care we provided and we are truly sorry.”
It said the death of any baby was a “tragedy” and promised improvements to maternity services.
In March 2024, the couple had a meeting with the trust to discuss all that had happened.
From the discussions, Neil and Katie decided they needed to honour Poppy.
“The first conversations about Poppy’s Promise were about being human,” said Neil, 45.
“It spun from our treatment, and not being treated like human beings.”
