Call for urgent action at Welsh hospital after three-day-old baby dies

A coroner has taken the unusual step of issuing a call to take life-saving action following the death of a three-day-old baby in hospital.

Nola-Reign Morgan died at Cwmbran's Grange University Hospital in February 2024 as a result of a brain injury caused by an infection found in her mother's placenta.

At an inquest held in May this year the assistant coroner for Gwent, Martin Lanchester, found the main contributing causes of the death were likely to be the infant's mother not being immediately admitted to the labour ward of the hospital after being triaged upon arrival, and that for a period of some 88 minutes there was no foetal heartbeat monitoring while the mum was waiting for transfer to the high dependency unit.

The coroner has now issued a "Prevention of Future Deaths" report to highlight concerns which emerged during the hearing of evidence at the inquest, and to call for action to address them.

In the report the coroner says that in his opinion, unless action is taken to address the concerns he has raised "then there is a significant risk of future deaths".

Four areas of concern are highlighted:

• The lack national guidance available concerning antenatal foetal monitoring, particularly in cases of suspected chorioamnionitis (the infection Nola-Reign Morgan's mother had).

• A lack of any reference to suspected chorioamnionitis or continuous foetal monitoring in recent guidance provided by the local health board.

• Insufficient evidence of the training in place locally following Nola-Reign’s death.

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Source: Wales Online, 6 September 2026