Health Law

Medical Injuries are worldwide

This from an article in Ireland.  A settlement in a birth injury case involving a failure to properly electronically monitor the labor as is progressed.  The result was severe cerebral palsy.

Details were not disclosed except that it was substantial and the full amount claimed.

In a statement read out in court by Mrs Swaine on the couple's behalf, she criticised the hospital for the way they were treated both during and after the birth.

She said during her labour, which was induced, she and her husband had waited so long for the arrival of their first child and what should have been a joyous occasion "soon turned into the most tragic of our lives."

She said that during her labour, she and her husband told a nurse they felt something was wrong and they were "basically ignored".

Christopher, who was born on July 21, 2002, with severe cerebral palsy, had to be resuscitated after birth and spent a month in intensive care where the parents had to learn to feed him through a tube.

In the claim for damages, it was stated Mrs Swaine was admitted to the NMH, following previous admissions for monitoring during her pregnancy for hypertension.

She was overdue and was left on the ante-natal ward for 24 hours before she was given drugs to induce labour. The hospital administered doses of one drug in excess of appropriate guidelines while there was also a failure to establish the well-being of the baby before administering another drug, it was claimed.

There was also a failure to carry out proper electronic monitoring of the baby and there was no appropriate investigation of Mrs Swaine's complaints, it was claimed.

The child was born with severe physical and intellectual disabilities, including recurring respiratory problems and would have been, had he survived, unable to sit or walk independently.

On November 23, 2002, he died from breathing complications as a result of the injuries sustained by him during the course of his birth, it was claimed.

Source: Independent.ie

Full post as published by Cerebral Palsy Law Blog on February 04, 2008 (boomark / email).