http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2201486/Couple-leaving-hospital-premature-baby-win-compensation-attacked-security-guards.html
Couple leaving hospital with their premature baby daughter win compensation after being 'attacked' by security guards

Couple tried to leave hospital after consultant said they could take premature baby home[/*]The mother and father claim they were 'jumped on' by security staff who tried to block them leaving[/*]
• Were cautioned for a public order offence and admitted swearing during assault and spent night in separate cells
  

By
Anna Edwards


PUBLISHED:

05:51 EST, 11 September 2012





UPDATED:

08:09 EST, 11 September 2012






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A couple who were left with
bruises and black eyes after hospital security staff assaulted them as
they tried to take their newborn daughter home have been paid £7,000 in compensation after the horrific attack.
David
and Beverley Fish spent six months anxiously waiting at their daughter
Ellie-Suzanne's bedside after she was born just 23 weeks into her
mother's pregnancy.But
when the couple, from Fishponds, Bristol, tried to leave the Bristol
Children's Hospital with their little girl after a consultant in charge
said they could go home, they were halted by four security staff.The
couple claim they were jumped on and, when Mrs Fish passed her baby,
who was still attached to oxygen, to a friend was rammed into a fire
door.










Injured: Beverley Fish was left with a black eye from the incident while her husband was left with severe bruising on his back






Pay out: David and Beverley Fish at home with
their daughter, Ellie-Suzanne, now aged four, say they were assaulted
despite a consultant giving them the go-ahead to take their baby home



David was left with bruising on his back and bloodshot eyes and Beverley was left with a black eye from the incident.

David,
47, said: 'We were told by a doctor on the ward that we were going to
be allowed to take Ellie home overnight and then bring her back in the
morning.



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'It would have been the first time she had ever come home, or out of hospital.

'We
spoke to the doctor there and he said it was absolutely fine and we
could take her home now so we got everything up together.
'When we walked out we saw the security guards coming up but thought nothing of it.'

Ellie-Suzanne was born weighing just 1Ib 4oz in September 2007 after Beverley went into premature labour.

The
youngster was initially given a ten to 15 per cent chance of survival
and spent the first six months of her life in the neonatal intensive
care unit at Southmead Hospital, Bristol, before being transferred to
Bristol Children's Hospital for an operation on her stomach.

Ellie-Suzanne, seen here after her premature
birth, was kept in hospital for six months while her parents anxiously
monitored her progress


Baby Ellie-Suzanne with her parents when they
first took her home from hospital. Doctors gave her just a ten to
fifteen per cent chance of survival

It was after surgery at the city
centre hospital that Mr and Mrs Fish say the consultant in charge of
her care told them they could finally take their daughter home.But
another consultant involved in her care disagreed and, as the couple
attempted to leave the hospital with their baby daughter, security staff
tried to stop them.David
said: 'As Beverley and I tried to walk out, four guards stopped us and
we were injured after they tried to keep us at the hospital.'Police were called and later took photographs of the injuries the couple suffered.

The
couple sued the NHS and David has now received a settlement, with
£7,000 compensation, after the legal team acting on behalf of University
Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust admitted liability for the
injuries he suffered in March 2008.Both David and Beverley, 42, were cautioned for a public order offence, and admit they swore at the time of the alleged assault.



Both David and Beverley, 42, were cautioned for a public order offence, and admit they swore at the time of the alleged assault




The couple could not see their daughter for two weeks after the incident and had friends and relatives visit her




They said it was not until 5am the next day that they saw each other again, after spending the night in separate police cells.

After the incident they were prevented from visiting their daughter for two weeks.

The
couple, who also have three sons, David, 23, Martyn, 21, and Joshua,
16, and daughters Stacey, 26 and Abbie, 19, had to send relatives and
friends in to visit their daughter during that time.When they were allowed back the couple had to sign an agreement which insisted that their visits had to be monitored.

Beverley said that after the incident she became anxious.

She said: 'When I first saw my face afterwards I could not believe it.

'My bridge was knocked out of my mouth and my face was black for months afterwards.'

David and Beverley said they had
previously raised concerns about the care of their daughter while she
was in ward 38 at the hospital.Ellie
still requires oxygen overnight and has other complex needs but can
walk and can talk, which her parents said they were warned not to
expect. She has now started at a mainstream school.A
spokesman for the NHS Litigation Authority, which handles legal matters
on behalf of health trusts, said: 'There was a claim made of assault by
security staff. After an investigation we admitted that claim and
compensation was paid.'
A
spokeswoman for the city centre hospital trust said: 'The NHS
Litigation Authority has settled Mr Fish's civil claim for personal
injury against University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust as a
result of an incident in March 2008.'She
would not respond to the family's allegations about the way the
security team had handled the situation or complaints over other aspects
of her care at the hospital prior to the incident.The trust also declined to say whether its security procedures had changed since the incident.

Tom
Jones of Thompsons Solicitors, which handled the case for Mr and Mrs
Fish, said: 'Civil proceedings for personal injury (which in Mr Fish's
case have been successful and in Mrs Fish's case have yet to be
concluded) were started.'The
allegations of negligence included that the Trust failed to control or
adequately train employees for whom they were responsible.'

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