"My mum had a miscarriage at 17 weeks"

Whilst at home, unfortunately my Mum gave birth at 17 weeks. The paramedics arrived, and whilst we knew there was nothing they could do for the baby, my mum was bleeding and this was a concern.

We were taken by ambulance to A&E where we were greeted by a nurse - she was in charge as she wore dark blue scrubs. She put my Mum in a side room. She was brilliant - she came and took the baby, who had been wrapped in an inco sheet, and placed him inside "what looks like a small pillowcase" and brought him in with a memory box. We were seen by a doctor who told us that Mum needed to go to Gynaecology. A nurse who, it was obvious did not know what to say, came and took bloods and said they were taking us there now.

They wheeled Mum down with the baby on her lap, and needless to say people in the corridor clearly knew what had happened. At not one stage did a member of staff offer to carry or put the baby somewhere so that my Mum wasn't made a freakshow attraction whilst wheeled down the corridor. The only reason she was covered was I had taken two blankets of the linen trolley to preserve her dignity.

Once upstairs, we were put in "the treatment room," which was an office with a bed in. To add insult to injury, a nurse called my Mum the completely wrong name - this is because the lack of communication between two nurses. A doctor came in, looking for another patient who wasn't my Mum. Once this doctor had found the right notes, wanted to examine my Mum. Whilst being examined behind a curtain, another member of staff came in, wanting a trolley which she insisted she had there an then, whilst my Mum is being examined. The doctor left and a student nurse came to clean her up, the student nurse did not dry her off and therefore was left with wet legs. No-one checked on either of us for the 2 hours duration we were in there. We were finally taken into a side room, where I was offered a drink  - which never materialised.

Mum tells me that whilst in hospital, the doctor who came to complete a procedure put the baby on the floor. In addition, they wished to do admission paperwork at 0300am in the morning, 12 hours after being admitted to begin with.

Honestly, from start to finish it was a disaster. I'm currently a student nurse and what I witnessed that day has deterred me for life to not work at Derriford. The lack of communication, care, compassion just made what was already horrible situation a 100x worse.

I write this in the hope that staff can learn from this experience. That one nurse in A&E made us feel at ease and for that I am eternally grateful.