Hospital admits that negligent midwifery care led to young woman’s Cerebral Palsy

Ben Ward, a partner in Ashtons’ medical negligence team, has obtained full admissions of liability from an NHS Trust that a young woman, Ms A, suffered cerebral palsy as a consequence of the substandard care the hospital provided to her mum whilst she was in labour.

Ms A, who was born over 20 years ago, has been diagnosed with quadriplegic dyskinetic cerebral palsy, which predominantly impacts her mobility. She suffers from ataxic movements in her limbs which worsen when she is fatigued. Although she is able to move around the house using furniture for support, she struggles to use the stairs and uses a powered wheelchair to mobilise outside of the house.

Ms A was delivered in poor condition. She had a severely acidotic cord blood gas, meconium stained liquor and a low heart rate with no respiratory effort, requiring resuscitation. In the first few days of life, she suffered from seizures and was noted to have abnormal tone and posture. She had, in fact, suffered an acute profound hypoxic ischaemic injury which, it was alleged, happened shortly before her delivery. This caused a lack of oxygen supply to her brain.

Following expert evidence from specialists in the field of midwifery, obstetrics, neonatology, paediatric neurology and neuro-radiology, a number of allegations were put to the Defendant in relation to the standard of care that Ms A and her mum had been provided. The majority of these allegations could be grouped as follows:

• The failure to note increasing risk as events unfolded from augmentation of labour through to delivery
• The inability to sufficiently monitor the fetal heart by way of CTG or fetal scalp electrode throughout labour. There were countless occasions when loss of contact with the fetal heart occurred
• Mistakenly interpreting the CTG as showing fetal heart rate when, in fact, it was picking up mum’s pulse
• Failing to understand the need for, and undertake, medical reviews at the appropriate times as events unfolded throughout delivery.

Following their own investigation on receipt of the allegations, the Trust sent a full apology to Ms A for their errors and admitted that their errors caused the brain damage that she suffered during her delivery. Although they chose not to respond to each and every allegation, liability has, therefore, been admitted. The parties will now undertake investigations to value Ms A’s claim and attempt to negotiate a financial settlement.

This has been a tremendously difficult case to pursue for Ms A and her family, who have dedicated their own lives to ensuring Ms A’s happiness. With the level of care that she has required throughout her life, her family had tremendous concerns about what would happen to Ms A when they were no longer able to care for her. Whilst the claim cannot turn back the clock and undo the life-changing injuries that Ms A has suffered, it will provide all of them the reassurance that Ms A will be able to access the care, treatment, equipment and support that she requires in order to live as independently as possible for the remainder of her life.

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Our Medical Negligence team are experienced in assisting clients with Birth Injury claims, Cerebral Palsy claims and Brain Injury claims.

If you believe we can assist you when pursuing a Medical Negligence claim, please get in contact with us on 0330 191 4835 or fill out our online enquiry form.

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