A young woman today said she was left in a casualty department to deliver her premature baby alone.
Toni Malseed has criticised staff at Colchester General Hospital who she said failed to spot she was in labour.
She said it meant she was left alone to deliver her son, who died when he was just ten minutes old.
Mrs Malseed, 20, of Colchester, is angry with the casualty staff, who she says should have noticed she was giving birth.
She said: "If they had just picked up that I was having contractions then maybe it would have been different, but now we will never know."
A spokesman for Essex Rivers NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, said: "We are very concerned to hear what Mrs Malseed is saying about her experience in our A and E department.
"This is a very difficult time for her and I want to express our heartfelt sympathy. We will be investigating these serious claims."
Published Wednesday August 21, 2002
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