Pages On: Birth Injury
Having a child is mostly a magical experience, however, preventable complications can arise. Medical professionals hold a duty of care to all patients, and pregnant people are no different. Injuries during childbirth can occur to the mother and baby where doctors and nurses act negligently. It can have seriously damaging consequences for the life of the child, such oxygen starvation leading to cerebral palsy. Such conditions can render a child essentially helpless, needing constant care. This not only removes the livelihood of the child, but the parents also. If you’ve suffered a birth injury, and feel medical negligence is to blame, you may be entitled to claim compensation.
Late medical negligence application refused for birth injury claimant
Posted: 21 December 2015
Posted in: Birth Injury, Head and Brain Injuries, Medical Negligence
A late application to amend a woman’s claim against a health board has been refused. 23-year-old Jill Clark was left permanently brain-damaged after suffering a severe brain injury during birth. She sued Greater Glasgow Health Board for £15million, claiming that midwives and doctors “negligently mismanaged” her mother’s labour. A Court of Session judge ruled that the minute of amendment — proposing a new “risk disclosure” case based on the UK Supreme Court’s decision in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board — “conflicts with the principle of finality”. It was heard in…
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Mother wins £5m in compensation for son brain-damaged at birth
Posted: 26 March 2015
Posted in: Birth Injury, Head and Brain Injuries, Medical Negligence
A mother has been awarded £5million in compensation after her son was born with severe brain damage following birthing complications. 40-year-old Nadine Montgomery won the compensation over the claim that doctors failed to provide her with proper advice, which could have led to her son having had a safer caesarean birth in 1999. Sam Montgomery, now 16-years-old, requires around the clock care. Mrs Montgomery had previous had her claim rejected on two occasions at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Judges at the Supreme Court, London, however, supported her claim against…
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Baby health visits suspended as NHS struggles to fill Islands' vacancies
Posted: 15 March 2015
Posted in: Birth Injury, Medical Negligence
Numerous health visiting services on the Western Isles have been provisionally suspended as a result of problems filling vacancies at the Islands’ health board. A spokesperson from NHS Western Isles said that it’s making “every effort” to recruit additional full-time posts in its health visiting team. Services currently suspended include routine postnatal visits, but the spokesperson said that visits such as those to new mothers and their children were being prioritised. Parents on the islands are currently being told to take their children to clinics for assessments as even 27-month home…
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Fife faces huge medical negligence compensation bill
Posted: 30 January 2015
Posted in: Birth Injury, Criminal Injury and Assault, Medical Negligence, NHS Claims, Workplace Injuries
Fife’s NHS has recently been bombarded with a flood of medical negligence claims that could see them having to pay out £17million in compensation. Recent figures revealed that 77 claimants are currently seeking compensation for medical negligence, with one claiming over a birth defect. Furthering this, they also face a further 31 cases of liability lodged by NHS members of staff, seven of whom are claiming for alleged assaults by patients. Critics have raised the point that NHS Fife’s recent flood of claims is the continuation of a pattern recognised…
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Baby dies in hospital due to poor care
Posted: 19 July 2013
Posted in: Birth Injury, Medical Negligence, Wrongful & Accidental Death
After a baby died in April 2012 due to a fractured skull, a coroner has said that this could have been prevented by better care. On the day of baby Frank Gamble’s birth, hospital staff tried to deliver him with forceps and called for a caesarean section after their third failed attempt at delivery. Soon after he was delivered, Frank died from a brain bleed at Colchester General Hospital in Essex. Coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray strongly believes that this could have been prevented had they opted for a caesarean after their first failed…
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Mother wins compensation for son brain-damaged at birth
Posted: 15 January 2013
Posted in: Birth Injury, Head and Brain Injuries, Medical Negligence
A mother has successfully claimed compensation on behalf of her son, who suffered severe brain damage at birth as a result of errors by medical staff, reports the Daily Mail. Clare Scott pursued her claim against the Royal Bournemouth Hospital Trust for 12 years, after the Trust initially denied liability in the case. Mrs Scott had a normal, healthy pregnancy until she went into labour and attended the Royal Bournemouth Hospital in Dorset. During her labour, the midwives did not notice for some time that the umbilical cord had become…
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