A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel said Shadae Mullard’s conduct had been “deplorable”
A newborn baby suffered a “catastrophic” haemorrhage after a nurse failed to correctly administer vital vitamins after a home birth. Shadae Mullard, an on-call midwife at Liverpool Women’s Hospital’s home birth team, lied to colleagues about her failure to provide the crucial vitamins to the newborn in 2021, which led to the baby being hospitalised.
A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) fitness to practise hearing was told how new parents had called for Ms Mullard’s help for a home birth in May three years ago but she arrived after the child – baby A was born. A report released following the hearing – which concluded earlier this month – said Ms Mullard had tried to claim she had given baby A the required vitamin K despite there being no contemporaneous evidence or witnesses of this occurring.
A month later, the child was admitted to a specialist paediatric hospital, with a history of vomiting, a weak left arm and eye rolling. A CT scan found a large intracranial haemorrhage graded as “catastrophic” and the clotting screen results were consistent with severe vitamin K deficiency.
Ms Mullard has been subsequently struck off from the nursing register after her attempts to cover up her actions. The report said a colleague visited baby A’s mother on May 21, the day her child was born, to carry out routine examinations and post natal checks.
She noted that the administration of vitamin K had not been documented and asked the parents who said they could not recollect seeing this being done or being told by Ms Mullard she had completed it.
After being admitted to hospital a month later, baby A’s clotting parameters normalised after receiving the requisite vitamins, leading to a diagnosis of late haemorrhagic disease of the newborn (HDN). Safeguarding teams were also informed there was no record of vitamin K being administered in baby A’s personal child health record, known as a red book.
Ms Mullard, who now works as an events manager at a hotel, was informed on June 2 that the newborn had been admitted to hospital. She said as far as she could remember, the vitamin had been given to baby A on the day – this was not true.
The former midwife went on to the child’s baby record and retrospectively made an entry detailing how vitamins had been administered on May 1, when this was not the case. During an investigation launched by the Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, a consultant paediatric haematologist said “there was less than one percent likelihood of baby A receiving vitamin K”.
Baby A’s condition improved after the administration of vitamins following the emergency admission to hospital in June. Ms Mullard was suspended from the hospital in September 2021 and sacked with immediate effect in January 2022.
The NMC panel said Ms Mullard’s accounts of events had been “inconsistent” and took the view she knew she had not administered the vitamins to the newborn when telling colleagues otherwise and amending the records retrospectively. The report said: “You knew full well that you had not administered vitamin K to baby A, and could find no innocent explanation for your lies to colleagues and in clinical records.”
Ms Mullard also accepted she had not organised blood samples for a woman known as patient F, due to insufficient time after being suspended. On this occasion, she had told a colleague this had been completed when again it had not.
The former midwife said the reason for it not being completed was “due to a combination of a busy night” and the suspension. The colleague said she felt Ms Mullard had “lied to her face”.
According to the report, Alastair Kennedy, on behalf of the NMC, told the hearing how not administering vitamin K to baby A resulted in serious actual harm. The three person panel concluded Ms Mullard’s actions to cover up her omission resulted in her undertaking a “deceitful” course of conduct “which included telling repeated lies” including an entry on a clinical record which she knew to be false.
The report added: “The panel considered that these actions were particularly serious and other members of your profession would find them deplorable.” As a result, it was deemed Ms Mullard’s conduct amounted to serious professional misconduct.
The officials said Ms Mullard had attempted to conceal her misconduct, compromising the care of vulnerable patients and causing actual harm to baby A. Additionally, the panel found the misconduct was “part of a prolonged pattern of deception, involving repeatedly telling lies to colleagues over a period of time.”
As a result, it was deemed striking her from the register was the only sanction sufficient to protect the public and address the wider public interest.