Missed contraceptive coil left woman unable to have children.

A woman was denied the chance to have children with her husband after a contraceptive coil was accidentally left in place for 29 years.

Jayne Huddleston, from Crewe, had eight rounds of fertility treatment she did not need because the correct checks were not carried out by her doctor.

She said she was "absolutely devastated" about the missed opportunity.

She said the mistake happened in 1990 and told the BBC: "The GP said it couldn't be seen, so I was sent for a scan and the scan didn't pick anything up and the GP recommended another coil was fitted."

She was told the coil she had fitted around a year earlier had probably fallen out.

When she and her husband, David, then decided they wanted to have a child, the second coil was removed, but the first coil, which was still undetected, remained inside her.

They tried for years to have a baby, with no success, including IVF treatment which cost the couple thousands of pounds.

The mistake was discovered only when she went for an X-ray in 2019 after complaining of back pain and the original coil was revealed.

She said: "I came out of that room, just devastated, I was in tears. David was waiting for me outside and I just looked at David through tears and I said "David, all those babies."

The first coil had been in place for almost three decades and by that time she was too old to conceive.

She said: "When you think about it, what might have been, it never goes away, I won't get those years back again."

Ms. Huddleston and her husband have now reached a six-figure out-of-court settlement with the GP who is no longer practicing.

Mrs Huddleston had a son from a previous marriage, so she and David have at least been able to enjoy one grandchild, but she said: "I don't want it to happen to anyone else, I really don't want anyone else to go through this."