Neil and Katie Russell lost their daughter Poppy at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford in April 2021, just 12 hours after birth. During pregnancy, Katie communicated to midwives that she had tokophobia and requested a caesarean delivery. She reported being refused this option and subsequently receiving inadequate monitoring during labor. When Poppy eventually required an emergency caesarean section, she had already sustained a hypoxic brain injury and died later that day. An inquest into the death determined it was preventable and would have been survivable had delivery occurred an hour earlier.
Following the inquest in 2023, the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust initially blamed Katie for refusing fetal monitoring, a claim the inquest found to be false. Staff members were subsequently found to have attempted to conceal aspects of the incident. The trust acknowledged failures in care and committed to service improvements. At the time of Poppy’s death, the trust was undergoing a large maternity inquiry that identified 201 babies and nine mothers who might have survived with better care.
Rather than pursuing legal action, the Russells chose to work constructively with the trust following a meeting in March 2024. They developed Poppy’s Promise, an initiative built on four care principles: compassion, acknowledgement, respect, and empowerment. The framework emphasizes treating patients as individuals and involving them in their own care. The trust is now implementing this training across its 8,000 staff members and has incorporated questions about compassionate care into recruitment processes.
Staff members acknowledge that delivering compassionate care presents challenges due to workplace pressures and emotional fatigue. However, research suggests that patients treated with compassion and empathy experience better outcomes and fewer complications. The Russells report that other NHS organizations and universities have expressed interest in adopting Poppy’s Promise, with the goal of embedding these principles throughout the health service.
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