We helped a mother claim compensation for her baby, Alisha*, after a delay in her delivery left the child needing 24-hour care.
What happened to Alisha?
While Alisha’s mum was in labour, the medical professionals failed to speed up the second stage of labour.
This failure to speed up labour resulted in Alisha experiencing chronic partial hypoxic-ischaemic insult. This is when blood and oxygen to a baby aren't completely stopped but are reduced. If left too long, there can be irreversible damage to the brain and other organs.
The chronic partial hypoxic-ischaemic resulted in a terminal collapse shortly before delivery. Alisha then experienced acute profound hypoxic-ischaemic insult because of the terminal collapse. This is where the oxygen and blood are completely shut off. A baby can usually survive ten minutes of this before beginning to sustain brain damage.
How has this impacted Alisha’s life?
Because of the delayed delivery, Alisha now has four limb spastic cerebral palsy and will need 24-hour care for the rest of her life.
Alisha can’t move without help and will never be able to live independently because of her brain damage.
How did Irwin Mitchell help Alisha?
Alisha’s mum came to our birth injury medical negligence team for help getting compensation to fund the ongoing care Alisha needs.
Rebecca Cherry, a specialist medical negligence solicitor, managed the case and started to gather evidence to present to the NHS Trust. She used medical experts who assessed the care Alisha’s mum had during labour.
When we took the claim to the NHS Trust, they denied liability. They argued that Alisha didn’t need to be delivered earlier, and the deterioration was because of a maternal infection causing septicaemia.
They also stated that there was no evidence of foetal bradycardia, an irregular heartbeat of a foetus, so earlier delivery wouldn’t have helped avoid any injuries.
After we presented more evidence, including expert opinions, the Trust admitted that at the second stage of labour, there should have been an increase in monitoring the foetal heart rate. They said this should have been increased to every five minutes rather than every 15 minutes.
We were able to get interim payments to help Alisha’s family put in place private therapies, find more suitable housing, and get professional care. They’ll be supported by a member of our Support and Rehabilitation team throughout their claim and in the future if they need them.
Rebecca is still working to settle the case by investigating what ongoing support and future needs Alisha will have as a result of her injury.
On Alisha’s claim, Rebecca said: “What should have been a simple labour was complicated by the delay by medical professionals.
“Alisha will now not be able to live independently at all in her life. She needs 24-hour care and will likely never walk unassisted. This was all avoidable.
“I’m glad we were able to help Alisha’s family get answers and compensation to fund the support she needs. Hopefully, it’ll make her life as comfortable as possible.”
*Not real name used.
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