Poppy Russell died shortly after birth in April 2021 at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital due to a preventable hypoxic brain injury caused by inadequate monitoring during labor. The Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust initially blamed her mother for refusing foetal monitoring, though an inquest later found this false. Instead of seeking retribution, Poppy's parents are now working with the trust to implement compassionate care principles they call "Poppy’s Promise," focusing on compassion, acknowledgment, respect, and empowerment in patient interactions.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-08,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it -0.35, but all 4 of its quote(s) are attributed speech - words the article quotes from someone, not the article's own narration, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph
rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 64833: attributed speech only · logged 2026-10-08
- Published
When Poppy Russell died shortly after birth, her parents were left bereft.
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parents → publish → birth
What followed made matters harder to bear - her mother was blamed for the death.
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mother → follow → death
An inquest would later conclude that Poppy's death was preventable.
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death → conclude → ?
But instead of walking away from the trust that had failed them, Neil and Katie Russell are now working with it to bring compassionate care back into the NHS.
"We could have very easily been consumed by hate and anger and rage at what happened – and those feelings are still there," said Katie.
uncertain
Katie → walk → hate
"But if no change comes from what happened to Poppy, then what's the point?"
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point → come → Poppy
Poppy Russell died in April 2021 at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
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Russell → die → Telford
During her pregnancy her mother told midwives that she had tokophobia, a fear of natural birth and wanted a caesarean section.
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she → tell → section
Katie said she was repeatedly told however that she "couldn't just ask for a c-section.
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she → say → section
"
When she went into labour, Katie was induced and then "we were left in a room for long periods of time where I had no care," she explained.
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she → go → care
"Finally, when we got into the labour suite, I wasn't monitored appropriately and they missed signs that Poppy was in distress.
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Poppy → get → distress
In a bitter irony, Poppy had to be delivered by emergency caesarean.
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Poppy → have → caesarean
By then however, she had developed a hypoxic brain injury and died later the same day.
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she → develop → injury
An inquest into her death found that had Poppy been born an hour earlier, she would have survived.
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she → find → death
The Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust (SaTH), which ran the hospital, subsequently blamed Katie for her daughter's death.
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which → run → death
They said she had refused foetal monitoring; the inquest concluded that was untrue.
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that → say → monitoring
"The trust left us in an appalling position," said Neil Russell.
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Russell → leave → position
"Not only were they found to have neglected our care, but in the months and years following, we uncovered that members of staff had tried to cover it up.
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members → find → it
Losing your daughter is one thing, but then to find that there was a cavalcade of lies was almost as bad."
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find → lose → lies
Following the inquest in 2023 the trust said: "We recognise there were failings in the care we provided and we are truly sorry."
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we → follow → care
It said the death of any baby was a "tragedy" and promised improvements to maternity services.
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death → say → services
In March 2024, the couple had a meeting with the trust to discuss all that had happened.
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that → have → all
From the discussions, Neil and Katie decided they needed to honour Poppy.
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they → decide → Poppy
"The first conversations about Poppy's Promise were about being human," said Neil, 45.
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Neil → say → Promise
"It spun from our treatment, and not being treated like human beings."
Poppy's Promise is based on four care principles:
Compassion - showing kindness
Acknowledgement - recognising a patient's feelings
Respect - valuing their opinion
Empowerment - involving patients in their care
"
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Promise → spin → care
It's seeing the person, not the diagnosis.
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It → see → diagnosis
It's someone coming into a room holding your hand, someone acknowledging the fact that this is difficult for you," said Katie.
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Katie → come → you
Even in the midst of her poor care at the time of her daughter's death, Katie, 41, vividly remembers one midwife who showed some compassion.
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who → remember → compassion
"She came in and said, 'how are you doing?
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you → come → ?
I just want to hug you.'
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I → want → you
"She sat with me and she cried with me and she said, 'this should never have happened,' and that will always stay with me because it's exactly what I needed at that point.
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I → sit → point
The review found that 201 babies and nine mothers might have survived with better care.
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babies → find → care
As part of its improvement programme, the trust is now rolling out Poppy's Promise to all 8,000 staff.
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trust → roll → staff
As well as reminding its existing employees of the principles of compassionate care, the trust has embedded a question about it into its recruitment processes.
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trust → remind → processes
The most important part of the training is "to remind me that we are here on a woman's journey, they are not on our journey," says Tasha Simmons, a midwifery ward manager at the trust.
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Simmons → remind → trust
"They don't need to know that I've answered three emergency bells this morning, that's not important to them.
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that → need → them
"What's important is I'm fully present with them to support them in their experience, with kindness and compassion.
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I → support → kindness
"
No-one starts a shift intending to provide care that is lacking in compassion.
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that → start → compassion
The problem, say staff, is the pressure they are under - from the sheer number of people in Accident and Emergency to the complexity of many of the patients in hospital.
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they → say → hospital
Remembering to treat each person with kindness in those circumstances can be a challenge, said Dr Adrian Walsh, an emergency medicine consultant at the Princess Royal Hospital.
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Walsh → remember → Hospital
Day in, day out we have a significant amount of competing demands," he said.
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he → have → demands
…and 3 more, not listed.
The Aporia
