A mum whose baby son suffered a serious brain injury has called for all pregnant women to be tested for a potentially fatal bacterial infection.
Bethany Ford, 23, has warned of the dangers of group B strep, which caused son Grayson Harris to contract meninigitis.
The infant was tested for the condition during her labour at Epsom Hopsital in Surrey, but by the time the positive results came back, Grayson was already born.
He was admitted to the special baby care unit, where he remained for two weeks – only for it later to emerge that he had a brain injury.
Grayson was discharged from hospital two weeks after his birth in December 2015, but readmitted weeks later, MyLondon reports .
He now has global development delay.
Bethany and her partner, Keith Harris, 32, from Mitcham, South London, instructed specialist medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to investigate their son’s care under Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital.
With their work ongoing, the family and their legal team have joined forces to mark Group B Strep Awareness Month.
Bethany and Keith are supporting calls for all women to be tested on the NHS for group B strep between 35 and 37 weeks into their pregnancy so appropriate care plans can be put in place to stop the infection being transmitted from mums to their babies.
Richard Kayser, expert medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, said: “More than three years on from Grayson’s birth, Bethany and Keith remain understandably very concerned by the issues he has faced in his life so far.
“While we are continuing to work to investigate their case, we believe that the awareness month is a fitting time to reflect on why testing around the issue of group B Strep should be improved.
“A simple test can be conducted to highlight whether an expectant mother is a carrier of the condition and her care plan can be adjusted to ensure intravenous antibiotics are provided throughout labour to prevent the infection being transmitted.
“Everything possible must be done to prevent this infection in babies.”
Bethany had experienced a routine pregnancy when her waters broke on December 16, 2015. She was admitted to Epson Hospital and a nurse took a swab from her, which she subsequently learned was to test for group B strep.
Grayson was born at around 10am the next day. He started grunting and yelping that afternoon.
At around 6pm he was admitted to the special care baby unit. It was then confirmed that the group B strep test was positive and it had caused meningitis .
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