NHS trust apology after baby given wrong breast milk

A hospital trust has apologised to the parents of a baby who was given another mother's breast milk after being born prematurely.

Melissa and Callum say they were "let down repeatedly" during their son Milo's treatment at Leicester Royal Infirmary (LRI) and Leicester General Hospital (LGH).

Milo, who was born at 26 weeks in March, was fed stored breast milk from a woman who was not his mother on three occasions.

University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL), which runs the hospitals where Milo was treated, apologised to his parents and said changes had been made to its processes.

Melissa said: "I thought, what if he's got an infection from it? Because there's so many unknowns with other people's bodily fluids." 

The milk was fed to Milo through a syringe, from a bottle which had two labels on it - one for Melissa, and one identifying it as the milk of another mother on the ward. The hospital later found that the milk was not Melissa's.

Melissa said that she faced strange answers to questions she asked during ward rounds about Milo's future treatment.

She said: "I was told by a consultant that we were going to be moved to LGH because 'the junior members of her team were afraid to approach me because I ask too many questions'.

"This wasn't the first time in our weeks there I was called angry, unapproachable and scary."

UHL later told Melissa it was sorry its staff "did not have the skills" to support her fully.

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Source: BBC News, 2 September 2024