The Birth Injuries team at Irwin Mitchell have secured a six figure settlement for a mother who was left permanently injured after her treatment during labour was mismanaged.
On the 13th March 2011, Sophie went into labour and was admitted to the delivery suite at Colchester General Hospital with regular contractions. While the first stage of her labour went normally, hospital staff thought that the second stage was proceeding slowly and decided to administer Syntocinon, a hormone drip, to increase the strength and frequency of her contractions.
However the attending midwives failed to administer the drip properly; they increased the doses too often by too much, which resulted in Sophie having too many contractions and abnormalities in the trace monitoring her baby’s heartbeat. The obstetrician made the decision to perform an immediate birth based on the baby’s heartbeat and performed a forceps delivery, casing Sophie’s vaginal wall to tear. She subsequently bled severely, in what’s called a postpartum haemorrhage, and needed several blood transfusions.
In the weeks immediately after the birth, which is always a difficult time, Sophie went through severe perineal pain with extensive bruising and swelling, which left her very weak. She wasn’t mobile and had to go through the ordeal of watching other people care for her new baby. The repair done on her vaginal tear didn’t heal properly either and she needed an operation to refashion the episiotomy.
The cumulative effect of all this on Sophie was devastating. In the months after her son’s birth she experienced widespread trauma to her pelvic floor, sustained back pain and post-traumatic stress disorder. All of her symptoms are still ongoing, severely adding to the already difficult task of raising a new child.
Sophie decided to get in touch with the specialist clinical negligence team at Irwin Mitchell to see if she could claim for the pain and distressed caused by the negligent care during her childbirth. Georgie Cushing, the solicitor who dealt with Sophie’s case, sought outside expert advice on the care Sophie received at Colchester General and determined that the care she received had been substandard. Furthermore, had her care been properly managed, she wouldn’t have needed a forceps delivery, wouldn’t have suffered a vaginal tear or a postpartum haemorrhage and wouldn’t have had to go through all her ongoing gynaecological and psychiatric symptoms.
Once Georgie and her team had put the evidence together, a Letter of Claim was sent to the Defendant, who denied any liability. Georgie then began court proceedings and proceeded the case through the litigation process. A month before the trial was due to take place, and having fully quantified the claim, Georgie was able to negotiate an out-of-court settlement for £120,000 to compensate Sophie for the physical and emotional suffering she endured that could have been so easily avoided.
If you, a loved one or your child, has suffered due to negligent care received during childbirth then please get in touch as we may be able to help you make a claim. You can either call us on 0370 1500 100 or fill in our contact form and we will call you back.
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