Paddock mum Samantha Smith claims she nearly died after being misdiagnosed three times at Calderdale Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary

A MOTHER claims she was left seriously ill after hospital staff failed to detect problems following the birth of her third child.

Samantha Smith, from Paddock, gave birth to healthy baby boy James Spearman on March 12.

But a week later she was struck down with severe bleeding.

And over the next 20 days, she was admitted to hospitals FOUR times in a bid to sort out the problems.

It was finally diagnosed as a blood clot caused by a piece of placenta, left inside after the birth.

Mum-of-three Samantha told the Examiner: “I kept being admitted to Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax, but they kept discharging me.

“They thought it might be a urine infection at first and told me to come back if it happened again.

“It took 20 days and four trips to A&E to find out what was wrong with me.

“The third time I refused to go back to Halifax and went to the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary instead.

“I lost a litre and a half of blood and I nearly died. I had to have two blood transfusions.”

During the birth, a piece of the placenta had become detached and remained inside the 30-year-old’s body.

It had caused a blood clot which wasn’t detected until Samantha was examined by a gynaecologist on her fourth trip to hospital.

Samantha told the Examiner she is angry the life-threatening blood clot was not found earlier.

She said: “I’ve lost the time I should have had with my new born baby child and I’ll never get that back.”

Samantha said she started bleeding at her house in front of her scared four-year-old daughter Danika Spearman.

She said: “I couldn’t even take my daughter down to nursery I was that tired.

“I was just lying on the sofa all day I was so ill.

“I knew something wasn’t right, but they had sent me home.”

Samantha, who lives with her partner Robert Spearman, said she had a history of blood clots after haemorrhaging following the birth of her first child, Leah Smith, seven.

She added: “They should have looked at my history. I’m really angry they didn’t look after me properly.

“I’m thankful that it’s all over at last.

“I’m really thankful to my mother and father-in-law, Robert and Elizabeth Spearman, who really looked after me over the past few weeks.”

The couple are lodging a complaint with the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust.

A Trust spokesman said they could not comment on individual patients.