New mum left with 'oozing blood' for hours at a time in Scottish hospital after sanitary pads used to dress C-section

A woman was left ‘oozing blood’ for hours at a time in hospital after midwives used sanitary pads to dress her C-section wound following a diagnosis of sepsis and B strep.

Kelly Curran, 29, said she would ring the bell for a midwife’s attention but had to wait ‘for hours and hours’ until somebody attended to her at the Simpson maternity unit of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Ms Curran, who had been re-admitted to the hospital after her C-section wound re-opened following the birth of a healthy baby boy, said midwives never voluntarily changed her dressing in the five days she was in hospital from November 17.

She was either given dressing by a rare visit from a doctor, or else had to ask for her wound to be cleaned.

Kelly Curran, 29, said she would ring the bell for a midwifes attention but had to wait for hours and hours until somebody attended to her

“I was hungry and tired and I had an open wound and I was just ignored,” she said.

“I would ring the alarm and wait for hours for a midwife to come, despite me bleeding.”

Ms Curran was admitted with her new baby, Elijah, so she could breastfeed while husband Bryan looked after the couple’s other children.

When midwives did come to change the dressing, she said they often used a sanitary towel rather than a sterile dressing.

“They didn’t clean the wound with blood and pus on it - I was scared I was going to get more infection,” she said.

“They put a sanitary pad on it, it was just oozing blood because it needed changing.”

“They often used a period pad instead of dressing, but the pad is supposed to stick to the pants, it’s not like dressing that sticks to the skin. It just kept coming off.”aid Mr Curran.

“The head midwife was pulling her hair out looking for equipment, they must be trying to ration it,” he added.

“Kelly had to ask for the dressing to be changed, they kept peeling off - the midwives seemed to think it wasn’t their job,” he said. “hey’re overworked, it’s too much. It’s the system that’s the problem, there is not enough money being put into it.”

Ms Curran was discharged on November 22.

A spokesperson for NHS Lothian said: “We have not received any complaint and we are not aware of these concerns.

“We would always apologise to anyone who does not feel they have had the care they have a right to expect and we would ask any patient who has concerns to contact us to discuss them.”