Mrs Rajatheepan gave her evidence through an interpreter. She explained that she was born on the 7th June 1988 in Sri Lanka and was a Tamil speaker with hardly any English. She came to this country in February 2008. The extent of her English was limited to a small number of words which were commonly used in Sri Lanka. She fell pregnant in November 2008. The pregnancy was uneventful. The due date of delivery was the 7th July but she went beyond that date. On the 13th July she thought she had started labour and was having contractions so was taken to the Hospital by her husband, seen and told to return on the 16th July 2009 which she duly did. It was her intention to breast feed and she recalls that after the delivery on the labour ward at the Hospital, she was moved to a side room and whilst there, there was a discussion with a midwife which was interpreted for her by her husband, during which it was agreed that although she would breast feed the Claimant, initially feeding would be undertaken by midwives whilst she recovered from the operation, as she was in pain at the time. Her husband and a woman called Suba, who was the wife of one of his friends, were present during this discussion. Thereafter, in the early hours of 17th July she was transferred back to Japonica ward and after that, her husband and Suba left the hospital.
Her recollection was that she began to breast feed the Claimant after lunch on the 17th July and continued to breast feed the baby thereafter. She believed that the Claimant was feeding successfully and after feeding, he slept.
On the 18th July the Claimant started to cry and it was her evidence that he continued to cry up until and indeed after discharge into the next day. At the time she thought he was hungry but was concerned about the crying so she called for a midwife using the buzzer provided for that purpose on two separate occasions, on only one of which however did a midwife attend. She described the midwife putting the Claimant on his back and trying to pacify him and then gave the Claimant back to her and left. Mrs Rajatheepancarried on trying to feed the Claimant. Whenever a nurse came by she would smile and Mrs Rajatheepan would smile back and the nurse would nod her head and leave.
Because the Claimant kept crying she went to the midwives station but none of the midwives seemed to notice her so she returned to her bed and took the baby out of the cot again and tried to stop him crying without success so she returned two or three times to the midwife station, on each occasion without being able to attract the attention of any of the midwives on duty. She said that noone was paying her any attention and she felt unable to communicate her concerns because of her lack of English.
She was adamant that at no stage whilst she was in the Hospital did any of the midwives sit down with her and explain to her how to breast feed or what to do if she was unable to feed the Claimant, although she did recall being shown, along with other new mothers, how to wash her baby and change his nappy.
She recalled that later in the morning she learned that she was going to be sent home because she received what she described as a letter which was headed "Discharge" which had been left on her bed. She understood the word because it was a word which was used in Sri Lanka. She was confused because she had understood from one of the doctors that she was going to be kept in for longer. She telephoned her husband who was working that day and asked him to speak to one of the nurses, which he did, using her phone. Her husband told her that the upshot of that conversation was that she would be discharged, and her husband agreed to come and collect her after he finished work, sometime after 7.00 p.m.
She did not remember much about the discharge conversation with midwife Oriakhi. She said that she did not understand what she was being told, her concern being the Claimant who was constantly crying. She recalled being given a folder with a large number of papers in it but didn't look at the contents.
Her husband came to collect her with two of his friends, one of whom was Kevin Gunaratnam and the other was called Mathan at about 8.30pm. When her husband arrived the Claimant was crying and she explained to him that he had been crying all day and of the attempts that she had made to get assistance without success. He went to see the midwives and came back with one who put the Claimant in a car seat which her husband had brought, and explained to her husband that it was normal for newly-born babies to cry. She then left. Her husband then asked Kevin Gunaratnam to go and ask the nurse again why the Claimant was continuing to cry, and for her to come and see the baby again. The midwife did return, but again, explained that newborn babies will cry. She also explained that a community midwife would visit her and the baby at home the next day. Mrs Rajatheepan recalled that there was an argument, during the course of which the midwife repeated that if there were any problems she could always bring the baby back to hospital, but she did not explain what she meant by problems.
Mrs Rajatheepan, her husband, the Claimant and Kevin Gunaratnam then left the ward and went to the car, but because the Claimant was still crying her husband decided to take the Claimant back to the ward, accompanied by Kevin Gunaratnam whilst Mrs Rajatheepan stayed in the car. When her husband returned he told her that he had got the same reply, and so they left and went home.
When they got home Mrs Rajatheepan said that she went to bed and tried to get the Claimant to breast feed during the course of the rest of that night, but he continued to cry. She didn't know whether he was taking milk or not. The next morning her husband went to work early. She thought the Claimant was tired after all his crying. She picked him up and put him to her breast but he seemed to make less effort.
The community midwife arrived at about 12.40, by which time the baby had not been crying for some time. She didn't understand what the community midwife, Ms Madigan, was saying, so telephoned her husband who was told that the Claimant had a serious problem, that an ambulance had been called and she and the Claimant went together to the Hospital by ambulance.