Grieving Queensland mum seeks answers one year after baby daughter’s tragic death at Redcliffe Hospital

The pain of losing her baby girl Thea has only gripped Meg Flaskett tighter one year on.

“One year has been really difficult — learning to navigate that this isn’t temporary and starting to realise that she won’t come home,” Flaskett told 7NEWS.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: A young mother who lost her baby is asking for answers.

The young Queensland woman lost her firstborn hours after delivery at Redcliffe Hospital — north of Brisbane — on September 11 last year.

Baby Thea was whisked away for resuscitation and Flaskett believes midwives lost precious minutes struggling to change an empty oxygen tank.

“Not having any answers (or) being any closer to closure makes it really hard,” Flaskett said.

“Her first birthday was beautiful. We spent it at the butterfly house and things that she would have loved, but it’s been very hard and I think the emotions have really started to set in more now.

“(We’re) in limbo land at the moment, so we still don’t have a cause of death. We’re no closer to understanding what caused her death, or why she died.

“Or why anything happened that night.”

Not having answers is “heartbreaking”, Flaskett said.

“It feels like you’re fighting a system that isn’t fighting for you,” she said.

“It feels like we’re the last chance that Thea has at having a voice or getting any justice for what happened to her.”

7NEWS has obtained leaked internal documents, showing there have been at least eight deaths in the maternity arm at Redcliffe Hospital since Thea’s death.

In July alone, three babies died.

Metro North Health said in a statement: “There are robust safety and quality systems in place at Redcliffe Hospital.

“In keeping with Queensland Health policy, every death of a baby, including in utero, is reported as a clinical incident and fully investigated.”

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said the “rate of perinatal deaths at Redcliffe is lower than the statewide average”.

Flaskett asked Fentiman for data on perinatal deaths in March this year, but was told it didn’t exist for individual hospitals.

“We requested a meeting with Minister Fentiman for access to perinatal death statistics, specifically from Redcliffe Hospital.

“We were told that those statistics didn’t exist by hospital, and they were only reported on by the health service.

“We specifically wanted to compare them from Redcliffe to the Mackay Base Hospital’s failings, to see if it warranted a bigger investigation.”

Mackay Base Hospital was subject to an investigation into its obstetrics and gynaecology service, which found inadequate care contributed to the deaths of three children.

Ninety-six women participated in the investigation.

Women described being disrespected, neglected, left in pain or discharged back to GPs with incomplete resolution of their problems and no adequate follow-up.

The report said 26 cases fell below expected medical standards resulting in personal injury or harm.

But Flaskett does not believe the department is being transparent about the data.

“Clearly something does exist.”

However, Fentiman is adamant neither she nor the department’s director-general are able to access hospital-based data.

“The thing I’m really focussed on is making sure our women have access to those really important scans,” she said.

The coroner and health ombudsman are now investigating if more could have been done for baby Thea — which means more time in “limbo land” for the Flasketts.

“We have no idea when we’ll find out any information about Thea’s death,” Flaskett said,

“We only hope that we find out as soon as we can.

“But we also hope that we find out the truth.”