Women's healthcare medical negligence

There are a vast array of medical conditions and issues specifically effecting women.

The most common problems associated with women’s healthcare are:

• Complications during pregnancy/childbirth.
• Personal injuries caused during surgical procedures.
• Delays in diagnosis and treatment of cancers such as cervical and breast cancer.
• Failed sterilisations.

Pregnancy medical negligence claims

A number of complications can arise during pregnancy and result in injury to both mother and baby. Common issues involving personal injury to the mother include:

• Delays in diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy.
• Maternal death/ brain injury due to hypertensive disease/ haemorrhage.
• Uterine rupture due to inappropriate use of oxytocinon/ trial of scar.
• Inadequate repair of tears of the perineum/ anal sphincter at the time of delivery resulting in fistulas and faecal incontinence.

Find out more information about birth injuries that can occur during pregnancy or during or after birth.

Operative complications

Common operative procedures include the D&C, laparoscopy, hysteroscopy and hysterectomy and these procedures can result in the following complications:

• Perforation of the womb, bowel or bladder.
• Damage to the ureters, sometimes resulting in fistulas between the bladder and vagina.
• Damage to the abdominal blood vessels.

Sometimes these injuries may occur because of the underlying condition which lead to the procedure in the first place, but the failure to recognise the injury at the time of the surgery nearly always represents substandard care.

Delays in diagnosis of cancer claims

Often there can be a delay in diagnosis of cancers of the cervix or breast. Problems can arise as a result of failures to refer for appropriate investigation or inadequate screening/investigation. Such delays (medical negligence) can have a tremendous impact on the treatment options available and in turn the prospects of a cure.

Pregnancy following a sterilisation procedure may well represent substandard care at the time of the procedure including:

• Failure to diagnose early pregnancy at the time of the procedure.
• Failure to cauterise or clip the fallopian tube at all, or alternatively, a failure to adequately apply the clip.

Sometimes recanalisation of the fallopian tube can occur naturally, but this usually occurs some while after the procedure and so early pregnancies are more likely to be attributable to substandard care or possibly medical negligence.
 
Making a compensation claim for medical negligence is a straightforward process, we guarantee to you that there will be no cost to you at all, whatever the outcome.

We need to show that your treating doctors have failed to give you proper care and treatment (have been medically or clinically negligent). We also need to show that because of your treating doctors failure you have suffered personal injury.

How much compensation will I receive?

We can give you a good idea of the likely range of compensation you will receive for your medical negligence claim when we first talk to you. Once we have investigated your case and can fully assess the effects of the medical negligence we can prepare a detailed valuation of your medical negligence claim.

Find out how we have helped others claim compensation.