A BABY could have survived if medics at Southend Hospital had acted faster to deliver him, a coroner has found.

Baby Frankie Solomons Hodges died on March 29, 2014, at the hospital, after his umbilical cord became wrapped around his neck, starving him of oxygen.

An inquest heard Frankie’s heart rate was monitored during labour, but staff failed to recognise a CTG trace indicating he was in distress and needed to be delivered.

Recording a narrative verdict on Friday, coroner for Essex, Caroline Beasley-Murray criticised medics for failing to recognise an abnormal heart scan and attempting to proceed with a normal delivery, because of this, the c-section was “unacceptably delayed”.

She said: “The cause of death was perinatal asphyxiation.

“There were serious failings in the care provided to baby Frankie and his mother by Southend Hospital.

“More timely intervention would probably have resulted in a better outcome. Baby Frankie would probably have survived. Baby Frankie’s death was contributed to by neglect.”

The coroner also pointed to errors that were made identifying Frankie’s position and there was discrepancy between midwives and registrar Dr Ibrahim Foroughi’s accounts of what happened during delivery.

Frankie’s parents, Ami Solomons Hodges, 31, and her partner Russell Lee, 48, from Great Wakering, say the hospital must learn from its grave mistakes.

Speaking after the inquest, Ami Solomons Hodges, said: “It has been very distressing having to listen to two days of evidence which has inevitably brought back memories.

“We are grateful to the Senior Coroner for concluding that Frankie's death was contributed to by neglect and the most important thing for us now is that the hospital learns from their grave mistakes and ensures that no other families have to go through what we went through.”