CARDIFF University Hospital of Wales has offered an 'unreserved' apology to a Monmouth woman who was told she'd suffered a miscarriage when she was still pregnant with a healthy foetus.

Following a pregnancy scan at the University Hospital of Wales, Emily Wheatley was told she'd had a silent miscarriage, meaning there are no symptoms.

It was only following Miss Wheatley's decision to undergo a uterine evacuation at Nevill Hall hospital that the error was detected.

After a more thorough scan was performed, Miss Wheatley was found to still be nine weeks pregnant.

She has since gone on to deliver a healthy baby girl.

A report published by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales stated that "at the time of the complaint, the Health Board had failed to implement guidelines issued by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) that were designed to prevent the misdiagnosis of early pregnancy loss.

"The Ombudsman also found that the initial dating scan had been incompetently conducted and that midwives failed to take account of the patient's relevant medical history."

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board's executive director of nursing, Ruth Walker, offered the Board's unreserved apologies to Miss Wheatley.

She said: "We do not underestimate the distress we have caused to Miss Wheatley and her family and are genuinely sorry that it has taken an Ombudsman's report for her to receive the answers she deserved.

"We are delighted that Miss Wheatley has given birth to a healthy baby, but completely accept that her enjoyment of what should have been a special time in her life has been marred by her poor experience while in our care.

"What happened to Miss Wheatley is absolutely unacceptable. While we now have protocols in place within the Obstetrics and Gynaecology directorate that comply with best practice, we have decided to go beyond the Ombudsman's recommendations and undertake a review of the way we care for women in the early stages of pregnancy.

"This will involve not just a complete review of policies, but also of how those policies work in practice and how they are monitored to ensure compliance.

"Our protocols have been updated to make sure that, where early pregnancy scans show that there is potential cause for concern, women receive a trans-vaginal scan to confirm whether pregnancy is viable or not.

"We have spoken with Miss Wheatley to personally express our apologies and hope to meet with her soon to share with her our action plan so that she knows that her experiences will not be repeated in the future."

Miss Wheatley said: "After they told me at Nevill Hall the baby was alive, I didn't know how to react. You don't just go from having a dead baby to a live baby.

"The chances for me to conceive naturally are very slim anyway, so if the hospital hadn't discovered I was still pregnant then I may never have conceived again.

"I wanted my story to be documented in so that other women going forward for scans know exactly what they are entitled to. In fact everyone needs to be aware of this, not just women."

A helpline was manned by clinical staff from Friday 1st to Monday 4th November to deal with queries from the public.

"Although the helpline number is no longer manned there are numbers available for counsellors to speak to," Miss Wheatley added.

"Ella turned nine months on Monday (11th November) and she's absolutely perfect."

The help line received 79 calls.

To view the full Ombudsman's report, visit http://www.ombudsman">www.ombudsman

-wales.org.uk