Doctor (Anita Vettesse)

The Doctor attended to Michelle Connor when she was taken to Weatherfield General in the twenty-third week of her pregnancy in January 2017 after suffering pains in her abdomen. After some checks, Michelle was kept in overnight for observation but the next day her waters broke and the doctor told her and the father Steve McDonald that the labour could not be stopped, even though the child was underdeveloped. The parents were devastated to be told that it was the hospital's policy not to intervene if the baby couldn't breathe of his own accord as he had not reached the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy and the doctor's attitude made it clear that she had little expectation that the infant would survive. As the labour continued, Steve objected to the doctor keeping Michelle on the maternity ward where his wide could hear the cries of other healthy babies but was sympathetically told that she was in the best place for the treatment that she needed. The doctor assisted at the birth, where baby Ruairi McDonald was indeed born lifeless.

The next day, the doctor asked Steve how he and his wife were coping but had to break more bad news when she explained that birth and death certificates would not be issued as the baby had been born too early. She offered to explain this bureaucratic block to Michelle but it was Steve who passed the information on to her that no record of their son's life would ever be officially made.