Thomas Gibson spent his weekends building a future for his daughter, but he died before she was born (Picture: PA)
A father-to-be was found dead on the couch hours before his daughter was born after doctors misread an abnormal heart scan.
Thomas Gibson, 40, was so excited to be a dad to baby Harper that he spent every weekend building furniture for his future daughter.
But he never replied when his partner Rebecca Moss tried to wake him for ‘baby day’.
Nothing seemed out of place when Moss, who woke early for a planned caesarean section on June 7 last year, found her ‘caring, charming and funny’ partner lying on the couch.
She told an inquest: ‘Tom was asleep on the couch. I was trying to cheer him up and was saying “Wake up, it’s baby day”.
‘Tom didn’t respond, so I went over to the couch to give him a kiss. He was lying in his usual sleeping position.
‘When I touched him, he was cold and stiff. He wouldn’t wake up.
‘I called 999 immediately. They asked me to pull Tom onto the floor and perform chest compressions. I started chest compressions until the ambulance arrived.
Baby Harper will never meet the father who was so excited to have her (Picture: Family Handout/PA)
‘The shock, trauma and not to mention the physical exertion of having to pull Tom off the couch and perform chest compressions at 39 weeks pregnant was overwhelming.’
Their daughter, Harper, was born hours later. She celebrates her first birthday this Friday.
Moss said: ‘He won’t be there for any of her birthdays. He won’t ever be there on Christmas morning, and he won’t be there on Father’s Day.
‘Harper will instead visit her dad’s grave when she’s old enough to understand.
‘We say good night to his picture every night before bed and she has a quilt which has been made from his favourite jumpers.
‘Tom will live on through his daughter but that doesn’t change the fact that he should still be here with us today.’
Gibson died from a sudden cardiac death after a doctor missed abnormalities in a heart scan.
A physically fit man who worked in a timber yard, his death came after three weeks of a stomach bug, causing cramps and diarrhoea, the inquest heard.
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This led to a visit to A&E at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester on May 27, where he was seen by Dr Oliver Handley just 11 days before he died.
Recognising signs of abnormality in Gibson’s ECG, which records the heart’s electrical activity, he referred it to a more senior medic, the medical registrar Dr Thomas Bull, for a second opinion.
But Dr Bull decided no further investigation or treatment was needed.
Dr Bull believed the abnormality to be an intraventricular block, ‘not an uncommon finding’ that is not clinically ‘significant’ without other heart-related symptoms.
He told the coroner’s court: ‘I advised if there’s no heart symptoms generally then that would not require any investigation at this time.’
Gibson died 11 days after being discharged and was told to return in a week if his severe stomach illness did not improve.
A pathologist concluded it to be a sudden cardiac death.
Lawyers for Mr Gibson’s relatives said Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust has made a full admission of liability that it provided negligent medical care to him in the days before his death.
Dr Matthew Thornber, a consultant at the hospital, said the two ECGs taken were not ‘textbook’ examples of looking like a heart block condition and such diagnosis requires nuance and experience.
He said: ‘This is not a barn door easy miss.’
The inquest continues.
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