New mum 'left to rot' in her own blood as midwives 'don't know how to change dressing' after C-section

New mum Latasha Wellington has to 'beg' nurses to change dressings.

A woman claims she has been left “lying in her own blood and pus” at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary after she was told staff didn’t know how to change the dressings on her C-section wound following a diagnosis of sepsis and E. coli.

Latasha Welllington, 26 – who said she has to “beg” nurses to change her dressings, pleaded: “I just want to be treated like a human, I’m lying in blood and pus with an infection, I can’t get any better and I’m just being left to rot.”

Latasha, a Costco supervisor from Loanhead, was discharged from hospital on Friday, November 15 after giving birth to a healthy baby boy via C-section.

A midwife who visited her at home suspected an infection and sent her to the Simpson maternity unit at the ERI.

Latasha’s mother Tricia, a former nurse, found midwives had put an incontinence pad on her wound instead of a dressing, despite “copious amounts of blood and pus pouring down her stomach and legs”.

“Midwives said on Wednesday they were going to refer her to a tissue viability nurse, but she was still in that situation on Saturday,” said Tricia.

“All that time she had been either sitting in bed covered in blood and pus or sitting in her chair with blood and pus running down her legs,” she added.

Later on Saturday a midwife fitted a stoma bag, which then repeatedly burst, Tricia said.

That day test results showed Latasha had sepsis and E. coli, and she was moved to a private room, which Tricia said was “filthy”.

“I wouldn’t keep my dog in conditions like that,” she said.

On Monday Tricia visited with baby Theodore, who is staying with his grandmother while Latasha recovers, to find Latasha “sitting in the chair with rivulets of blood and pus running down her legs and pooling at her feet”.

“She was crying, saying she couldn’t take it any more,” said Tricia, who spoke to the deputy charge nurse, who apologised.

“Our feet were sticking to the floor because of all the blood dried into it,” Tricia added.

The next day the mum and daughter spoke to the nurse manager, who ‘couldn’t have been more apologetic’.

The room was cleaned and a tissue viability nurse gave Latasha a dressing.

But two days ago Latasha called Tricia, ‘hysterical and crying’, because a midwife had refused to change her dressing, saying it was ‘not her job’.

“The dressing is supposed to be changed three times a day,” but that isn’t happening,” said Tricia.

"I cannot believe this is happening in 2019, in Edinburgh," she said.

"It's appalling, Latasha's basic needs aren't being met and I'm terrified of what the end result is going to be."

She added: "Even I would know how to change a sterile dressing, it's not brain surgery."

“The charge nurse said changing dressings isn’t the midwives job, so I have to beg to be cleaned,” said Latasha.

"I feel like I'm trapped and things aren't getting better... it's frightening but I have no other options."

Frances McGuire, Chief Midwife at NHS Lothian, said: “We are not allowed to discuss individual care of patients without their consent.

“High quality patient care and infection control are among the main priorities in NHS Lothian and as soon as patients or their families raise any concerns, they are immediately investigated and discussed with them directly.”