Birth Injury claim settles for £1.9 million lump sum plus annual payments for life
Birth Injury Claim
An 11 year old girl has been awarded more than £1.9 million in compensation as a lump sum and will also receive annual payments of £145k until the age of 21, then £190k per year thereafter, with an additional £25.2k per annum between the ages of 21 and 60 after medical staff delayed in delivering her in November 1997.
As a result she suffered asphyxiation causing serious brain injury. She has asymmetric mixed spastic dystonic tetraplegia and will never be functionally independent.
The Details
On 30 October 1997 the girl’s mother was admitted to the defendant hospital with a twin pregnancy, one of the unborn twins being the claimant.
CTG traces were commenced and at 9.12 it was noted that the claimant's trace had accelerations. Artificial rupture of the membranes took place and an epidural was given at 12.14. At 14.45 the midwife noted variable decelerations on the claimant's CTG trace. Her mother was found to be 7cm dilated. Within the previous six and a half hours her cervix had dilated between 2 and 3 cm.
At 16.10 the claimant's mother was reviewed by an obstetric registrar. He advised that in light of the slow progress, syntocinon should be administered. However, incoordinate uterine activity persisted. By 19.00 the cervix had dilated by only 1cm. An obstetric registrar reassessed the situation and decided that if there had been no progress in two hours time, a lower segment caesarean section would be carried out. At 21.40 a vaginal examination was performed and the cervix was fully dilated. However fetal tachycardia persisted.
At 22.15, care was handed over to the night team. They were informed that the trace for the claimant's twin was showing increasing tachycardia and decelerations. The claimant's trace demonstrated deep decelerations. 40 minutes later the claimant's mother started to push and at 23.05 the obstetric registrar and a paediatrician attended. 20 minutes later the Claimant's twin was delivered in good condition. 5 minutes later the claimant was found to have compound presentation of her head, foot and hand. The obstetric registrar recorded that there were infrequent or short contractions and that the mother’s cervix was closing. A vacuum cup was applied to the claimant’s head a number of times and an attempt was made to use forceps but was unsuccessful.
On November 1, 1997, at 8.30, the claimant was delivered by way of caesarean section. Forceps were also used. She was born in a poor state and had to be resuscitated and intubated to assist respiration, before she was transferred to the special baby care unit.
The claimant alleged that the hospital was negligent in failing to deliver her by an elective caesarean section. It was alleged that the hospital were also negligent failing to properly interpret the CTG recordings and appreciate the significance of her compound presentation and make urgent arrangements to transfer her mother to theatre for immediate delivery by emergency section rather than using instruments to deliver her.
The Outcome
As a result of these failings, the claimant alleged that she suffered asphyxiation at birth. She subsequently sustained hypoxic iscahemic encephalopathy with fits cerebral oedema, acidosis, poor perfusion, possibly sepsis and initial renal failure. She suffered asymmetric mixed spastic dystonic tetraplegia, is doubly incontinent, epileptic and is wholly dependant on other people to take care of her daily needs in all aspects of her life. She requires two carers to help her with transfers, in addition to an awake night carer. She also has severely limited communication skills and a gastrostomy was performed to partially feed her.
The defendant hospital admitted that the claimant should have been delivered significantly earlier by elective caesarean section or as soon as possible after 22.50 by emergency caesarean section and that, if she had been delivered earlier, she would not have sustained brain damage.
The claim settled out of Court.
Click here to read about some of the birth injury claims we have successfully settled on behalf of our clients.
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