1984
“I can only hear one heartbeat, I must be going deaf.” These words that I will always remember were said by a midwife who was supposed to be looking after me. I was expecting twins and had been admitted to the maternity hospital some hours before. I had been examined by a doctor when I came in. They were busy. It was 2nd August and staff change on 1st August. There wasn’t a monitor available. I assumed nothing was wrong and no one seemed concerned. Then after I had been in the hospital for about 8 hours and sometime after the midwife had made this throwaway comment, my obstetrician came in and my first baby twin boy Lewis was born, he was 6lbs 2ozs and was stillborn. Suddenly there were lots of medics around, I was anesthetised and given an emergency Caesarean section and my second baby twin boy Joseph was taken out 20 minutes later. He was 6lbs and alive and healthy. The hospital performed a post mortem on Lewis but of course there was nothing wrong with him, I had just been neglected. They were unable to tell me whether they were identical although I feel that they were. Joe is now 34 and birthdays have always been difficult. He is a lone twin and I feel his loss and my loss.
