New Cross Hospital apology after baby's finger sliced

Hospital officials have apologised after part of a newborn baby's finger was sliced off as a midwife used scissors to cut her umbilical cord.

Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital said it had apologised to the parents of Ishika Kainth, who had part of her left little finger sewn back on by surgeons.

It said an independent inquiry had started and the midwife involved in the incident on 14 May was "very upset".

The family said the baby was still "bandaged" up.

Vijay Kainth, cousin of the girl's father, said: "The midwife put the baby on her mother's stomach and basically went to cut the cord and at the same time cut the baby's finger off.

"We're basically praying that everything's just normal and [she'll] just get over it.

"But we don't know what's going to happen yet. It's still early stages."

The hospital said the midwife involved in the case was not practising clinically at the moment.

New Cross director of nursing and Midwifery, Cheryl Etches, said an independent investigation had been launched to learn lessons from the "tragic and regrettable" incident.

Ms Etches said: "We take patient safety very seriously here and therefore we immediately commenced an investigation.

"It's clearly important we learn any lessons resulting from this incident."