We secured an eight-figure settlement for our clients, Martha* and George*, after medical negligence resulted in their daughter, Sophie* being born with cerebral palsy.
What happened to Sophie?
Martha's initial pregnancy progressed without any complications until she was admitted to Broomfield Hospital's maternity outpatient clinic. This was after reporting a possible rupture of membranes.
She was discharged after being examined.
Martha was re-admitted to hospital later that evening with a history of contractions. Before this, she hadn't experienced any injury in her womb.
During the labour and delivery of Martha's baby, the midwifery team claimed to assess the fetal heart rate using intermittent auscultation. However, this wasn't done to the right level of frequency or with the competency needed to ensure accurate readings.
The record includes a far greater number of recordings of the fetal heart rate than were actually recorded during the labour and delivery.
Martha was later moved to a birthing pool and was visited by the midwife about three times in two hours. Each visit only lasted a couple of minutes, and when it was confirmed, Martha was fully dilated, the midwife also visited on three occasions.
At one point, George had to search for the midwife as she hadn't attended for over half an hour, but he couldn't find her.
Several hours later, there was an abnormally low heart rate of 85 bpm. The second midwife decided to seek a medical review.
When an obstetrician was asked to attend, there were no preparations to speed up the delivery or start cardiotocograph (CTG) monitoring.
The quality of CTG tracking was inadequate most of the time, and it didn't recognise that there were frequent and prolonged decelerations. No thought was put into how to accelerate the delivery.
What impact did this have?
Sophie was born in a poor condition. She was floppy and grey, and her Apgar scores were low. She also needed ventilation and suctioning of thick meconium.
At aged seven-and-a-half minutes, she was incubated. There was a 22-minute period before spontaneous respiration was established.
Sophie was diagnosed with hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy and passive cooling was offered. She'd sustained serious and permanent brain damage.
Martha and George’s lives have changed completely due to Sophie’s injuries.
How did Irwin Mitchell’s birth injury claims team help?
Martha and George contacted our birth injury claims team to investigate the potential medical negligence she’d got during Sophie’s delivery.
Our solicitors began an investigation, obtaining medical records. We also enlisted the help of an independent medical expert, who could give an impartial opinion on the quality of care Martha and Sophie received.
We submitted a Letter of Claim and received a Letter of Response, in which the defendant admitted to a breach of duty.
Due to the early admission of liability, we were able to secure interim payments for Martha and George. This helped them to fund ongoing intervention and therapy.
Almost 18 months later, the defendant made further admissions to causation and effect that their delays and failures had caused Sophie’s cerebral palsy.
An eight-figure settlement
We were able to agree a settlement shortly before the claim was due to go to trial. This meant Martha and Geroge were spared the stress of having to go to court.
An eight-figure lump sum was agreed, along with six-figure annual payments to be made to Sophie for the rest of her life. This compensation will help her to live her life to the fullest.
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