Mother-to-be 'killed her twins then blamed midwife'

Published on Wednesday 29 April 2009 01:24

A PREGNANT mother desperate to go into labour injected herself with drugs in hospital, killing her unborn twins, and then blamed her midwife, a court heard yesterday.

Faiso Sahil, who trained as a midwife in her native Somalia, found bottles of the drug Syntometrine in a medical trolley in her hosital delivery suite and injected them into a cannula in her left hand on 11 April 2007.

It is alleged that she was desperate to leave Southmead Hospital in Bristol because she disliked the food, wanted to go home and wanted her babies to be born as soon as possible.

It is also claimed the married mother of five, who was 37 weeks pregnant, believed the drug would induce her labour as a similar drug was used in Somalia and in the UK for this purpose.

However, her twin boy and girl died within 20 to 60 minutes of the injection, which caused the blood supply to her placenta to be restricted, thereby cutting off the oxygen to her babies.

She then told consultant Simon Grant that her midwife, Caroline Randall, had given her the drugs the night before the twins died, an allegation that led to Mrs Randall's arrest.

Sahil, 35, of Southmead, then tried to withdraw the allegation when questioned by police.

Mrs Randall was never charged in connection with the case and colleagues giving evidence described her as conscientious, caring and competent.

Sahil denies perverting the course of justice but has not been present at her trial – which continues at Bristol Crown Court.