Telford family's fight to make NHS care more compassionate after mum wrongly blamed for baby daughter's death
Katie Russell was wrongly blamed for the death of her baby daughter Poppy at the Princess Royal Hospital
A family from Shropshire are determined to make NHS care more compassionate in an everlasting legacy to their baby daughter who died shortly after she was born.
Poppy Russell died hours after she was born at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford in 2021, having developed a hypoxic brain injury.
Katie had tokophobia, which is a fear of natural childbirth, but was "dismissed time and time again" when she raised concerns about Poppy's condition.
She said Poppy wasn't monitored properly during her labour and signs she was in distress were missed.
The Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs the hospital, then blamed Katie for her daughter's death, accusing her of having refused foetal monitoring.
However, an inquest in 2023 found this to be untrue and instead ruled Poppy's death was entirely preventable and not Katie's fault. The trust has since apologised for their failings in the care the Russell family received.
To make sure, in their words, "Poppy didn't die for no reason", Katie and Poppy's dad, Neil Russell, who live near Telford, began coming up with a plan to change to system so that no family would go through what they had.
Wanting to make sure "Poppy didn't die for no reason"
"I decided that after Poppy's inquest, we had a piece of paper that told us that Poppy died because someone didn't do their job properly, but nothing was changing and I almost felt like our daughter had died for no reason and I couldn't have that," Katie said.
"I wanted to create a legacy for her."
The family have launched Poppy's Promise - an initiative that's determined to centre humanity and compassion in the healthcare service nationwide.
It's centred around four key pillars - compassion, acknowledgement, respect and empowerment - and is there to teach and remind healthcare students, recruiters and providers that behind every statistic and diagnosis is a person and a family.
"I think it's been difficult at times. I think some days are harder than others," Katie said.
"Seeing how this has been embraced, though, has been incredibly healing for me.
"I think it's very easy when you look at what happened to us to be all consumed by rage and hate and anger and frustration.
"But, if you don't drive that into change, it doesn't do anything.
"Someone said something to me once before about the frustration they felt for someone who'd done something to them, and she said, I had to let it go because the only person I was hurting was myself, and I thought, that's really powerful."
It's as important to staff as it is to patients
Katie said focussing on compassion-centred-care is as important to staff members as it is to patients.
"Staff are expected to do huge amounts within the NHS," she said.
"They are understaffed, they're under an immense amount of pressure. They cannot pour from an empty cup."
What stands out above all else is Poppy's name forever being associated with compassion and care.
"I don't know if I even have the words to describe it," Katie said.
"To see Poppy's name on the walls of hospitals and community healthcare settings and to hear people speak her name and talk about kindness and compassion and care and respect has just meant so much. It's so powerful."
10,000 staff at SaTH to learn from Poppy's Promise to improve trust's care across the board
Rather than cutting ties with the hospital trust where their pain began, the Russell family are instead working with bosses at SaTH with the roll out of Poppy's Promise.
Katie said: "It's been difficult at times - the relationship started out very difficult and very painful because obviously there was trust there to be earned.
"The accountability took a long time to come, but the new management team that's at the hospital have fully embraced this.
"That's the key to the success of something like Poppy's Promise is the board and the management embracing an initiative like this and filtering it down. It's saying to staff, you are allowed to care for people."
Sath said they're "honoured" to be working with Katie and Neil to better the care they can offer to the people of Shrosphire.
Jo Williams, Chief Executive for trust said: "We are honoured to be working with Katie and to be the first trust to launch Poppy’s Promise.
"Katie’s bravery, care and determination, following the tragic loss of Poppy, is inspiring us all to realise a meaningful legacy by delivering excellent care through compassion.
“By embedding Poppy's Promise across our organisations, we want to ensure that no patient or family ever feels unseen, unheard, or uncared for.
"We are committed to supporting our 10,000 colleagues to deliver compassionate care for everyone."