A doctor who made international headlines after helping a woman to give birth to a healthy baby after she had suffered 18 miscarriages has been appointed as joint clinical director for women and children’s services at Epsom Hospital.

Hassan Shehata, who has worked for the trust for more than 11 years, specialises in treating women who suffer recurrent miscarriages and medical problems in pregnancy, and helped to develop a pioneering technique of diagnosing and treating multiple miscarriages at Epsom and St Helier hospitals.

Working with an immunologist at the trust, Amolak Bansal, Dr Shehata found that some women’s natural killer cells are so aggressive they attack the pregnancy. 

In February 2010, Angie Baker gave birth to daughter Raiya after 18 miscarriages, thanks to the technique.

In his new role, Dr Shehata will oversee the services provided to women and children, including the hospital’s maternity and paediatrics departments, the special care baby unit and its gynaecology services.

He said: "I’ll be working with doctors, nurses and other staff from across the women and children’s team to further improve the service we provide, and welcome this opportunity to support the trust board and executive team in making sure that Epsom Hospital can move from strength to strength."