A hospital has apologized to a heartbroken woman who was mistakenly told she had chronic liver disease just days after suffering a miscarriage.

Chelsie Wright, Chathamwas left “confused and scared” after doctors at Medway Maritime Hospital mistakenly entered hepatitis in her medical record.

The responsible health body says it immediately acknowledged its mistake, “sincerely apologized” and explained the steps it is taking to ensure this does not happen again.

Chelsie, 27, first discovered she had become pregnant at the end of August.

She told KentOnline: “It was a high-risk pregnancy as I have a lot of health problems.

“I went straight to the early pregnancy unit and had lots of scans at the hospital. They said the baby was growing and everything was fine.

During checkups on September 3 and 17, Chelsie says she was told the baby was “growing beautifully”, but unfortunately on September 25 she was informed her child had stopped growing.

This is undeniably devastating news that she believes could have been communicated more sympathetically.

She added: “When they told me a woman came in and said ‘you’ve lost it’ and then she walked away like nothing had happened.

“I booked in the next day for another opinion and was told there were two babies, but they wanted to operate on me straight away.

“I instead paid for a private scan the same day to make sure there was no baby alive yet.

“This scan confirmed that it wasn’t two and that the baby had died earlier than I thought.

“The reason they thought there were two was because the baby had already started to separate.

“But I wasn’t happy about having surgery there and not knowing if there were two more babies there and if one of them was still alive.”

A week later, on October 2, she presented for a dilation and curettage (D&C) operation and was discharged a few hours later.

Chelsie has already suffered three losses and is at high risk as she has epilepsy and is being tested for sticky blood syndrome.

But seeing hepatitis, a condition used to describe inflammation of liver tissue, in his records was completely unexpected.

Chelsie explained: “I was kicked out of the theater because they said there was no room in the theater.

“I had to walk around still not 100% with it. When I got home and started functioning a little better, I saw my discharge forms that said chronic hepatitis, so I was a little confused and scared.

“I made a doctor’s appointment because I was afraid I might have an illness I didn’t know about.

“I also contacted PALS to try to reach the person who wrote this on my exit forms, but I have had no response.”

About three days later, the hospital contacted Chelsie to tell her that chronic hepatitis had accidentally been listed on her form.

She apologized and immediately amended her hospital records.

“Obviously I wasn’t happy,” she added. “It’s a serious thing to put something like that in someone’s medical record if it’s not true.

“It was just one thing after another.

“I had to carry this dead baby inside me for a week and if he had died earlier it could have been a lot longer than that. This was not a pleasant procedure to go through.

“I just don’t want this to happen to anyone else, this hospital has really let me down.”

Chelsie received a letter from her miscarriage consultant on October 15 apologizing for the mistake.

I just don’t want this to happen to anyone else, this hospital has really failed me

A written communication from the hospital to Chelsie and her GP, seen by KentOnline, reads: “Unfortunately you had to contact our PALS department due to an error on the discharge summary which has now been corrected .

“I apologized again for this mistake and we talked today about an action plan I have in place to avoid similar mistakes in the future.”

Sarah Vaux, Acting Chief Nursing Officer at Medway NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We offer our deepest sympathies to Miss Wright on the devastating loss of her baby and the distress she is experiencing.

“Our early pregnancy bereavement service is available, should Miss Wright wish to take up this offer of additional support.

“We are sorry for the error made on Miss Wright’s discharge notes and understand the unnecessary worry this may have caused during this very difficult time.

“As soon as we were informed of this, we contacted Miss Wright to offer our sincere apologies, help answer her questions and explain the steps we have taken to correct her discharge notes and to ensure that this does not happen again.”

In the UK, it is estimated that one in four pregnancies end in the loss of a baby.

Despite this figure, it is still a subject that many find difficult to talk about and families find themselves faced with a wall of silence.

Abigail’s Footsteps is a charity that supports families at their most difficult times and provides training for healthcare professionals.

Last month the charity launched its second podcast series, A Journey with Abigail’s Footsteps, in which parents shared their own experiences to mark this year’s Baby Loss Awareness Week.

A Journey with Abigail’s Footsteps is an IM Listening production.