Hospital pleads guilty

A Wiltshire health trust has admitted breaching health and safety rules after a new mother died following a hospital blunder.

Mayra Cabrera, 30, died shortly after giving birth to son Zac, who survived, at Great Western Hospital in Swindon, on May 11 2004.  A nurse wrongly attached the epidural anaesthetic Bupivacaine to an intravenous drip attached to her arm instead of saline solution which she needed to help bring her blood pressure back up.  She died within minutes from a heart attack caused by Bupivacaine toxicity at the hospital where she had worked as a theatre nurse.

The Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust pleaded guilty to an offence under section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act during a hearing at Swindon Magistrates' Court on Friday.  The case was adjourned for sentence at Swindon Crown Court at a date to be fixed.  The charge relates to "risks arising from the storage of drugs and drugs errors''.

An inquest at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, in February 2008 ruled that Mrs Cabrera was unlawfully killed, citing negligent storage of Bupivacaine as a reason for her death. The inquest heard drug storage in the delivery suites was "chaotic''.

Mrs Cabrera gave birth to son Zac at 8.14am on May 11 2004, the inquest heard.

Following the error, she began to fit. At 10.27am she was certified dead.