Mother's death blamed on failures - £410,000 damages awarded

This story is so distressing to read, and evidently, the hospital have admitted that human error was at fault:

"Joanne Lockham, 45, died at Stoke Mandeville Hospital at Aylesbury in October 2007 during the birth of her first child. She was given a general anaesthetic when the baby's heart rate dropped. The oxygen supply to Mrs Lockham, of Wendover, was not put into her windpipe and she suffered cardiac arrest."

The headline of the updated story today reads: 'Payout over nurse Caesarean death', and is an example of when a caesarean delivery can be publicly associated with high risk.

However, it's important to point out that this was not a planned caesarean, and it was not spinal anaesthesia being used (both of which carry fewer risks than an emergency caesarean with general anaesthetic). This birth was a planned vaginal delivery (PVD) that ended in one of the worst birth outcomes of all.