'I was blamed for my baby's death, now NHS needs to change' — SkimNews
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- Poppy Russell died 12 hours after birth at Princess Royal Hospital in Telford in April 2021, after developing a hypoxic brain injury during labour following inadequate monitoring.
- A 2023 inquest found Poppy's death was preventable, concluding that had she been delivered an hour earlier she would have survived.
- The Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust (SaTH) initially blamed Katie Russell for refusing foetal monitoring, but the inquest ruled that claim untrue; the Russells later uncovered that staff had attempted to cover up the care failures.
- Neil and Katie Russell developed "Poppy's Promise" — built on four principles of compassion, acknowledgement, respect and empowerment — following a meeting with the trust in March 2024.
- SaTH is rolling out Poppy's Promise to all 8,000 of its staff and has embedded a question about compassionate care into its recruitment processes.
- At the time of Poppy's death, the trust was already subject to a major maternity inquiry that found 201 babies and nine mothers might have survived with better care.
Why it matters: The Russells converted a personal grievance into institutional reform at a trust already under scrutiny for a maternity scandal involving 201 babies and nine mothers. By embedding compassion into both training for 8,000 existing staff and recruitment of new hires, the programme creates structural accountability rather than relying on individual goodwill.
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