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Bereavement

Find bereavement help and support from other Mumsnetters. See also your choices after baby loss.

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Original poster

Doctor sued for failing to advice folic acid, baby dies from anencephaly

79 replies

razorlight · 30/09/2007 12:47

Has anyone seen this article that was in this weekend's daily mail? just wondered what your views were on it..

www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=484585&in_page_i d=1&inpageid=1&expand=true#StartComments

OP posts:

Original poster

razorlight · 30/09/2007 12:49

www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=484585&in_page_id=1&in_page_id= 1&expand=true#StartComments

OP posts:

LadyOfWaffle · 30/09/2007 12:53

Goodness, she was advised she said at 5/6 weeks though. I just don't know what to make of it, compensation culture gone mad IMHO.

fireflyfairy2 · 30/09/2007 12:56

Surely it's common sense to take folic acid?

Doesn't everyone know this?

Oh dear How sad.

Cappuccino · 30/09/2007 12:57

did she not read anything?

you don't often get to see a doctor till weeks in

didn't there used to be some kind of thing in law where you had to take some responsibility for it yourself (I remember a story from my newspaper law classes about a woman who sued a council after she broke a leg climbing on a loo roll holder, not the same but you get the picture)

you find out about folic acid from Miriam Stoppard not your GP

Niecie · 30/09/2007 12:57

I think the poor woman is looking for somebody to blame and the doctor got the short straw. It wasn't as if she hadn't had children before and taken folic acid. She had a responsibility to know why she had taken it in the past.

cazzybabs · 30/09/2007 12:58

I don't think that is right at all! I can understand sueing for money to help look after people where medical negligence has caused injury but in her case what difference is 30000 going to make - send her on a nice holiday? How can it make a difference to her loss? Will it mean everytime we see the GP the appoitment will take an hour whilst they outline everysingle thing we must or must not do meaning less appoitments???

Cappuccino · 30/09/2007 13:00

good point cazzybabs

a friend of mine sued the hospital for her child's CP and used the money to kit out her house for a severely disabled child

LazyLinePainterJane · 30/09/2007 13:00

I find it somewhat surprising that as a mother of several children she honestly did not know that folic acid was recommended...?

Surely if you do ANY research on being healthy in pregnancy, you come across this information?

Cappuccino · 30/09/2007 13:00

what I mean is, there was a point to that

AitchTwoOh · 30/09/2007 13:03

apparently the money isn't important to her but i don't see any mention of the charity she's donating it to...

Original poster

razorlight · 30/09/2007 13:04

i have mixed feelings on this one, i agree that taking folic acid is pretty much common sense, but i do believe that in this particular case the woman involved went to see her GP specifically to tell him that she intended to get pregnant. I think that a doctor's job is not only to cure people but also to advise them on potential dangers and preventative measures?

OP posts:

LazyLinePainterJane · 30/09/2007 13:07

I agree Aitch....

I don't know. Seems odd to me that someone who would make the effort to tell the doctor that they were trying to conceive would not have researched such things themselves.

Plus, she had been told to take it before in her three previous pregnancies, but had never been told what it was for? Any time? And didn't bother to find out what it was for?

Original poster

razorlight · 30/09/2007 13:08

we all know that it is standard practice to wear a seat belt on a fairground ride but isn't it the ride operator's job to check that everyone is buckled up before starting the ride??? If he started the ride and someone wasn't strapped in whose fault would it be?

OP posts:

crunchie · 30/09/2007 13:09

This woman makes me lose respect for people. A lot of times people don't know they are pg until after 5 - 6 weeks in, they are not always trying. I never took folic acid before I got pg, or indeed afterwards. However how was there even a case here??? I just don't understand. Yes it is devastating, but surely the folic acid is not the only thing.

FFS it will come soon when a person sues a GP for not telling them NOT to drive a car, or I could sue my GP as he told me PG was NOT an illness (and I ended up with pre-eclampsia at 26 weeks and prem baby) He told me not to worry about food as well!!!

Niecie · 30/09/2007 13:09

razorlight I would have some sympathy with that if she hadn't already had 3 children. You have to take some responsibility for yourself too.

Nbg · 30/09/2007 13:09

Am with Cazzybabs on this.

Reading that has made me really

AitchTwoOh · 30/09/2007 13:10

she'd had three healthy kids before, razorlight, she didn't bother thanking the doctors who advised her to take folic acid then. perhaps she should give them £10,000 each? this is a BULLSHIT case, imo. sometimes bad things happen...

fireflyfairy2 · 30/09/2007 13:11

But razorlight.. she had other children.. the doctor probably presumed she knew to take FA?

My sister who has been married just over a year has been ttc that length of time.. it is 11 years since she had a baby & she knew to take folic acid! She has been taking it since she stopped taking the pill.

She should accept responsibility & not blame the overworked doctors.

I see the amount is how much it would cost to pay 2 nurses for a year

Blandmum · 30/09/2007 13:11

This is a very sad case. I'm sure in part this is simply a woman trying to cope with a great loss; anger being one of the stages of grief.

It is interesting that 'the professions' for want of a better word can never seem to get things right.

Schools have taken a lambasting for giving information of healthy eating to parents on MN, the feeling was that the schools were infantalising them and insulting and partronising them. But if the information isn't given then the preofessional loses out again . Very sad on all counts

Gobbledigook · 30/09/2007 13:14

For the reasons already discussed, I think this is utterly ridiculous.

belgo · 30/09/2007 13:14

my gp told me I didn't need to take folic acid because a blood test showed all my vitamin levels were high enough.

Original poster

razorlight · 30/09/2007 13:16

i understand that - i have 3 children and i knew about and took folic acid prior to concieving all of them - without a doctor telling me to do so. However (i'm 30) my generation have been bought up differently to previous ones, we have always been encouraged to research things ourself, what with the internet etc. In the past people often relied on doctors for information. The woman said in the article that she remembered taking folic acid for previous pregnancies but assumed that it was prescribed for a pregnancy related problem and didn't know that it was standard practice theses days.

OP posts:

Blandmum · 30/09/2007 13:18

rl, I'm 45 and I read up on this sort of stuff for myself. I also got my gp to check my rubella status before I started to get PG.

bookthief · 30/09/2007 13:18

Belgo, there's a school of thought that says most of us probably have naturally high enough intake of folate if we have a healthy diet.

Folic acid only reduces the risk of neural tube defects so there's no guarantee her baby wouldn't have been affected if she had taken the supplements.

I can only imagine the poor woman's devastation, grief and anger but this doesn't doesn't feel right.

LazyLinePainterJane · 30/09/2007 13:20

Seems surprising to me that seeing as it's not possible to prove that the lack of folic acid caused her to lose her baby that the award was made, especially as it will surely set a precedent?

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