Woman who went into a coma after giving birth screamed ‘where’s my baby?’ when she woke up with a flat stomach and no memory of labour – as her son fought for his life at another hospital before he passed away at 20 days old

A mother who woke up from a coma after giving birth has recalled the heartbreak of waking up with a flat stomach and no sign of her baby.

Former midwife Robyn Davis, 28, from Steyning, West Sussex, was put in a coma after having a 20-minute seizure while in labour with her second child, Orlando.

Three days later, Robyn woke with no recollection of her birthing experience. She told the Mirror: ‘I touched my stomach and it was flat, I just screamed ‘Where’s my baby?’ I couldn’t remember what had happened, I was just screaming and crying, I didn’t know if I had had a boy or a girl.’

Orlando passed away at 20 days old. Robyn and her partner Jonny Davis, 30, have recalled the unthinkable experience in an inquest into the death of Orlando.

The inquest concluded on Thursday and found that medical neglect contributed to the newborn’s death after his mother developed hyponatremia during labour, which went unidentified.

Robyn started labour at home and later travelled to the hospital. Once there, she became unwell and was incoherent.

Robyn started to experience delusions and hallucinations, meaning she could not give consent to a Caesarean before suffering a 20-minute seizure. 

She suffered from a rare condition called hyponatraemia, which went undiagnosed at the time, and Jonny was told that she might not survive. Robyn was induced into a coma.

Orlando was born lifeless via Caesarean but was resuscitated after 20 minutes and transferred to a different hospital to be cared for by specialists.

Following the traumatic birthing experience, Jonny was kept in the dark about the condition of his wife or newborn child.

After Robyn woke up from the coma, she and Jonny travelled to Brighton Hospital to see their son.

It was then that the couple discovered he had cerebral palsy, was paralysed from the neck down, and was without a suck-and-swallow reflex. Multiple specialists told Robyn and Jonny that it was not in his best interest to keep him alive.

The couple told the Mirror that they were thankful to be able to take Orlando to Brighton Beach – their ‘only good memories with him’. Orlando passed away the next day, aged 14 days.

An inquest delved into the care Robyn received and found medical neglect contributed to Orlando’s death. The coroner found that the missed diagnosis of Robyn’s condition led to her seizures, meaning Orlando had restricted oxygen access, resulting in his irreversible brain injury.

Talking of the heartbreak, Robyn and Jonny have spoken of how they are living a ‘life sentence’ as they called for more openness in the health service.

Orlando’s parents have criticised the response by the health authorities for taking too long to investigate their son’s death, which they fear could put other babies and their mothers at risk.

Mrs Davis, 28, who retrained to work in early years education said: ‘I ended up in a coma and I was put in a coma for about three days.

‘When I woke up, Jonny told me about what had happened and from that moment onwards my mental health has never been the same.

‘We both got diagnosed with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and from a mental health point of view, we’ve never been the same people since it’s happened. I’ve never been able to return to work.’

Mr Davis, 30, said: ‘Myself and Robyn have been served a life sentence. No matter what the coroner deems it as, when the coronial process finishes, people go back to their jobs, people go back to their families.

‘And we will come back to ours but we will come back to… one that will never be complete.’

He continued: ‘We’ve always been a couple that plan to have a large family which we will always feel, no matter how many children, we will always feel that it’s not complete.

‘We still have a room in our home that is Orlando’s room that will never be used for anything else.

‘And it does feel like there’s this vacuum and void that will never be filled. We have our newest child Nova, we adore her, and there’s people who think ‘Oh, well you know, they’ve had another child now, I’m sure that solved all of their problems’, and that’s not the case.’

Mrs Davis added: ‘You can never move on from it because you’ll hit milestones in their life and you think, ‘Oh, they’ll be at this age, they’ll be doing that’ or, ‘Oh by now maybe we would have grandkids when we’re older’ and it’s never-ending, it is definitely a lifelong sentence for sure.’

Mrs Davis added that she had stopped working with children because she found it difficult to be around young boys following Orlando’s death.

She added that she still suffers a range of health issues as a result of the injuries she suffered during his birth.

The couple said that they had been frustrated by the health system and the coronial process following Orlando’s death which had led to them fighting for a full inquest to be held.

Mr Davis said: ‘As the family, at every turn, whether it’s the coronial process, whether it’s a possible negligence investigation, you’re actually continuously subservient to a process that you feel is drawn out and actually just continues to elongate the pain and turmoil that you’re going through.

‘We spent two-and-a-half years in purgatory waiting for accountability and we sit there and go ‘Well, in the last two-and-a-half years, what do we think the odds are that another circumstance may have occurred and the public have been at risk?”’

Following the inquest’s conclusion, the couple said they are joining calls for a national public inquiry into maternity care in England.

In a statement, they said: ‘What scares us, is that this is not an isolated incident and we know of many other families going through this same agony.’

Commenting after the inquest, chief nurse Maggie Davies from University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Worthing Hospital, said: ‘We wish to offer our sincere condolences to Orlando’s family once more for the unimaginable heartache and distress caused by the loss of their baby boy.

‘As the coroner noted in her findings, hyponatremia is an extremely rare condition which is little understood. We support her view that there is an urgent need for new national guidelines.

‘This tragedy has deeply affected everyone involved in the family’s care, and led directly to us introducing new guidance and training within our maternity service.’

It comes after the midwife who helped deliver Orlando, who died two weeks after an emergency C-section, said she was not concerned because she thought the mother was ‘hypno-birthing’, an inquest has heard. 

Robyn claimed she ‘never felt safe’ and concerns about her labour going wrong were repeatedly brushed aside during her home birth.

Mrs Davis, a trained midwife, accused her ex-colleagues of negligence over the death of her newborn son Orlando.

It was heard that her ‘birth plan’ did not include the increasingly popular breathing technique for pain management, hypno-birthing.

However, Gillian Goodwin, who was one of those who cared for Mrs Davis during the birth, said her behaviour was similar to mothers who use it, so she did not think the mother was in difficulty.

However, Mrs Davis ended up having to be rushed by ambulance to hospital, but had ‘no-one’ waiting for her when she arrived, the inquest was told. Ms Davis suffered seizures which led to her being placed in a coma.

The previously healthy baby boy tragically passed away just two weeks after being born by emergency caesarian section on September 10, 2021, despite it being initially assessed as a ‘low risk’ pregnancy. 

Ms Goodwin said that during the labour she had been worried about baby Orlando’s heart rate.

‘I was just really concerned the baby was not very happy and I didn’t know why,’ she told the inquest.

When asked what hypno-birthing was, she said: ‘It is a technique that some women choose to use to help through the process of giving birth.’

Ms Goodwin told the hearing she had looked through Mrs Davis’ birth plan – where there was no mention of using the technique.

‘It doesn’t say specifically that she wants to hypno-birth,’ she said.

However, she added: ‘She was acting like somebody who was hypno-birthing.

‘It’s all about the breathing technique.’

Orlando was the second child of graphic designer Jonny Davis, 30 and 28 year old Mrs Davis, of Steyning, West Sussex – who have since had another baby.

In light of his death, it has been alleged that there was a failure to monitor the ‘fluid consumption and urine output’ of Mrs Davis during labour.

At Chichester Coroner’s Court, Wiltshire, Ms Goodwin – who has worked as a midwife for 17 years – said she arrived at the Davis’ household at around 5pm on September 9, 2021.

Throughout the early stages, she said Mrs Davis was ‘acting like a normal person in labour’.

However, as the labour progressed with little progress, Mrs Davis ‘became demoralised’ until things deteriorated and it was decided she should be transferred to hospital.

Mrs Davis claimed her concerns about the baby’s position and fluid consumption were ignored.

The hearing was told Mrs Davis was ‘blue-lighted’ via ambulance to Worthing Hospital, West Sussex, but nobody was waiting for them when they arrived.

Ms Goodwin said she had to go inside and fetch members of staff to start treating Mrs Davis.

She insisted she had not told a fellow midwife that Mrs Davis was using the technique during a handover of her care at the hospital.

Despite this, the inquest previously heard the midwife told a dazed Mrs Davis she was sorry and felt as if it was her fault when she woke up – ‘because I just thought you were hypno-birthing’.

The solicitors of Robyn and Jonny also claim there was ‘a basic lack of safe maternity care’ provided for Orlando and his mother by NHS staff.

A spokesman for CL Medilaw previously told the inquest medics had ‘failed’ to monitor Mrs Davis’s fluid consumption and urine output during labour ‘despite identified concerns’.

They claim this caused the mother to have a seizure and require an emergency caesarean section to deliver Orlando, who was starved of oxygen and suffered fatal brain damage as a result.

Mrs Davis told the hearing she had previously worked as a midwife at the hospital but left because of ‘stress, poor staffing and lack of support’ for the midwifery team.

She said she had opted for a home birth with a birthing pool following the advice of her midwife.

Mrs Davis felt she had not been listened to by the midwives when she raised concerns about her fluid intake and the position of the baby.

She said: ‘I proceeded to keep saying ‘Something is wrong’. It felt like I was trapped, that, although I knew I was declining so rapidly, I was unable to think how I could help myself, such as asking to go to hospital.

‘Every time I said something was wrong the midwives never investigated this further.’

A spokesman for CL Medilaw previously said: ‘Robyn has been left with chronic ongoing health issues, and both her and Jonny have been diagnosed with PTSD as a result of their horrendous experience.’