Death of newborn Finnley Morris was 'completely unexpected', says doctor

Finnley Morris died at Royal Preston Hospital on October 5, four days after he was born at Blackpool Victoria hospital.

He was believed to have been born in a good condition - but immediately deteriorated and began having trouble breathing.

He was not intubated by medics for 42 minutes, during which time he suffered an unsurvivable brain injury due to lack of oxygen, leading to his death a few days later.

READ: Newborn baby died of a serious brain injury at Blackpool Vic after being deprived of oxygen for more than 40 minutesAt an ongoing inquest at Blackpool town hall, Dr Jennifer Hemers, who delivered Finnley at 00.22am on October 1, said the newborn's death was 'completely unexpected'.

She was quizzed by Victoria Beel, representing Finnley's family, about Blackpool Vic policy not to administer prostaglandins, a drug used to induce labour, to Finnley's mum, which she was is "the opposite" of national guidance from NICE.

Dr Hemers said she 'would have preferred' Mrs Morris to have the prostaglandins if these had been available to her.

The court previously heard that Mrs Morris, was five days overdue when doctors decided to induce her labour, following concerns that her baby's movements had reduced. An ECG showed Finnley's heart rate was normal at this time.

Almost 24 hours after labour was induced, however, his heart rate began to drop, and a decision was made for Dr Hemers to assist his delivery using forceps.

Dr Samuel Esiere, a trainee GP who was called to assist with the delivery, said as soon as Finnley was born he 'knew in his gut instinct that something must be seriously wrong'.

He said: "While the midwife was bringing the baby to me I noticed the baby wasn't right, and was floppy."

He raised concerns about the "insufficient" information provided to him by the midwives when they called him.

"When you start asking certain questions, all you get is 'sorry, I don't know the details'," he said, later adding: "This same issue of poor handover is something I raised during our de-brief."

He also noted the apparent lack of leadership during the attempts to resuscitate Finnley.

He said: "It really felt different because I had been in a resuscitation before, but there was another registrar... there was a running commentary and someone was giving instructions and telling (me) to log things. In this case, no one was running the commentary. I felt as though there wasn't the leadership that I would have expected in that situation."

The inquest continues.