A DISTRAUGHT mum claims surgeons at the old Worcester Royal Infirmary left her baby paralysed and brain-damaged after an emergency caesarean section went wrong.

Anna Jones has already received £10,000 compensation after bungling doctors left her in agony when they performed the operation without using the right drugs - leaving her feeling every cut of the surgeon's knife.

Now she is fighting health chiefs in a further legal dispute, claiming the hospital, which has since closed, was responsible for leaving Amelia, now aged five, wheelchair-bound and suffering cerebral palsy.

The 33-year-old's waters broke when she was 29 weeks pregnant - 11 weeks early.

Doctors said they wanted to delay her labour until the baby had developed more - and she spent four weeks going to and from the hospital, later discovering she had developed a serious infection.

"Eventually I went in because I couldn't feel the baby moving. But they still wouldn't deliver her. They said they were trying to wait until I was 34 weeks gone, but we pleaded with them to do something," said Anna, of Swallowfields, in Warndon Villages, Worcester.

"Then her heartbeat stopped and I was rushed in to have a section.

"I opted to have it where I'd still be awake, but they gave me the wrong mix of drugs which meant I felt everything. It was like a red-hot poker being shoved through me. The pain will live with me forever.

"I lost all my confidence and had to be assessed by a psychiatrist who found I had post-traumatic stress syndrome."

Anna claims doctors used forceps to remove Amelia, which caused brain damage in the process.

"We want them to admit what they've done," said Anna, who is married to Matthew, aged 33, and has five other children Kayleigh, 12, Christopher, nine, Thomas, eight, Lewis, seven, and Harriet, four. "This has ruined my family.

"Before, we both worked, but we've been forced to give that up and I hate living on benefits.

"I'm just thankful Amelia didn't die. She is such a bright, chatty and loving child. But it's awful knowing she'll never walk and have the life of a healthy child."

A spokesman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which is dealing with the claim since taking over from the old Worcester Royal Infirmary NHS Trust, said: "We would like to express our sympathy to the family. Given that Mrs Jones has indicated that she will pursue a legal claim, we are not able to comment further."

n Since Monday, when the Evening News exclusively revealed the contents of a damning report into maternity services at Worcestershire Royal, we have been inundated with phone calls, e-mails and letters from other parents with their experiences.

Not all were bad. To hear the stories of mums grateful for the help they received delivering healthy babies at the Royal, buy tomorrow's Evening News.