Doctors told Kimberley Newark her ruptured artery was 'trapped wind' and her newborn baby died

From the Newshound archive · first published 6 October 2026.

Kimberley Newark, 31, arrived at Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath in severe abdominal pain at 34 weeks pregnant, but maternity staff attributed her symptoms to trapped wind, sending her away with painkillers. Her condition then worsened, and an emergency caesarean was performed, at which point surgeons found she had lost around 11 litres of blood from a ruptured splenic artery. Baby Olivia was delivered unresponsive and subsequently died after sustaining severe brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation.

Newark has said she was silenced when she tried to raise the alarm: 'I was told to be quiet.'

Olivia was resuscitated and transferred to a specialist unit but doctors established that she had sustained severe hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy — brain damage from oxygen loss at birth.

Newark was rushed to intensive care and placed in a coma, and both mother and baby were later transferred to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, an inquest heard.