A FATHER is suing the NHS for damages after watching his wife give birth to their dead son because medics had missed the baby was in danger.

Ian Wild claims the shock of the tragic events – from the realisation his son was dead, to witnessing his stillbirth the following day – triggered a “psychiatric injury” from which he has been unable to recover from five years on.

Mr Wild, 40, of Richmond Street, Southend, told London’s High Court of the devastation he and wife Lisa suffered after they went into Southend Hospital in March 2009.

Giving evidence, an emotional Mr Wild said everything became a blur from the moment midwives were unable to find a heartbeat for their baby, who they named Matthew, on March, 20, 2009.

Mr Wild told the court he had been excited, elated and anxious at the prospect of becoming a dad for the first time when they went to hospital, but that changed when he realised their baby had died.

He said: “We left with a box of his handprints and photographs, which wasn’t what we wanted.

“I wanted to be coming home with a baby in a crib – wanting so desperately to be coming home with your child and then leaving with only a box is just awful.”

Southend Hospital bosses have admitted liability for Matthew’s death, which the court heard would not have happened were it not for the negligence of staff who failed during previous examinations to spot the baby's growth was severely restricted in the womb.

Had the danger to the infant been spotted earlier, it is likely he would have been delivered sooner and survived.

The trust previously settled a claim by Mrs Wild for £41,000 in relation to the overwhelming grief she has suffered as a result of Matthew’s death and the events surrounding it.

But it is fighting Mr Wild’s claim, arguing that the law does not allow for him to receive compensation because the negligence did not cause his pathological grief.

They also contend that, while they owed a duty of care to MrsWild, they owed no such duty to her husband.

Judge Michael Kent QC, hearing the case, reserved giving judgment until an unspecified later date.