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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:

fireflyfairy2 · 30/09/2007 13:21

I just scanned the article..

Is there proof beyond reasonable doubt that her GP didn't actually tell her to take her folic acid, or was it her word against hers?

Blandmum · 30/09/2007 13:23

I'm assuming that if they give you that advice they have to (in these litigious times) document that they have done so in your medical notes.

Niecie · 30/09/2007 13:38

It's an out of court settlement so it can't start a precedent which is a good thing.

I would just say even when I got pregnant 8 years ago the internet was not the widely available and much used resource thing it is today and I knew about folic acid. Not sure how but the information is not new.

I still say she shouldn't have taken the FA with her previous pregnancies without being sure why.

Isababel · 30/09/2007 13:43

I really can't begin to understand how she got that amount of money for something that she should have known in the first place.

biglips · 30/09/2007 13:46

this is loads of crap!!....as surely she had heard of Folic acid!!...as my docs didnt tell me anything and i had friends/family told me to take it but i didnt start taking it till i was 7 weeks pg...didnt know i was pg at the time and i stopped taking it when i was 12 weeks gone.....i didnt know that you can take it throughout the pg. Def loads of crap!!

RustyBear · 30/09/2007 13:46

I would have thought her medical notes would show she had previously been advised to take folic acid, so the doctor didn't feel it necessary to repeat the advice?

biglips · 30/09/2007 13:50

rusty - yes exactly...or she prob had never taken Folic acid - as havent it all the newspaper as it was annoying me!! - and had always buried her head in the sand to hear things eg take folic acid before you are ttc and up to the first 12 weeks

i think ill go and sue the arse of my docs shall I???? and have a good holiday!!!!

kimi · 30/09/2007 14:09

I saw this yesterday and wondered if she was a bit slow in the head, she has other children, so either she took folic acid when pregnant with them thus she should have known to take it or she did not take it when pregnant with them and they did not die so as sad as it is that she lost a child she cant really blame the Dr...
Oh wait there was some cash to be made by blaming the Dr wasent there.
Ok I know she said she was not after money just an apology and I am sure she will tell her self that as she skips all the way to the bank.

I have two children from two planned pregnancy's and I took folic acid from the moment I came off the pill BEFORE I saw a Dr to tell me I needed to, its called being a grown up and taking responsibility for ones own action/ life.

Some people make me sick....and this woman is one of them, wonder is I can sue her for that.....

LIZS · 30/09/2007 14:10

As far as I can tell she has said she thought she had been specifically advised to take folic acid in her previous pregnancies to avoid a complication , therefore had n't interpreted it as general advice tbh I think there is plenty of publicity in gp surgeries, magazines etc but not everyone chooses or is able to read it. It is an unfortunate and sad coincidence that this may have been preventable had she been specifically given the advice again.

NAB3 · 30/09/2007 14:15

I think it is sad state of affairs that she felt the need to sue, and then won.

She reckoned she thought being told to take folic acid in previous pgs was because of complications. Is there anyone who doesn't know you should take FA when trying to concieve?

I am sorry she lost her baby but I don't think she should have sued or won.

RustyBear · 30/09/2007 14:55

She may have thought it was due to complications, but as it actually wasn't, it wouldn't have said so in her notes, therefore the doctor wasn't negligent not to tell her (he would have no way of knowing that that was what she thought)

VeniVidiVickiQV · 30/09/2007 15:03

Oh dear god cases like this make me despair.

Has she no responsibility for herself - or her husband? Perhaps a person who will gleefully take supplements/medicine without finding out what its for and why shouldnt be allowed to have children? (I dont really think that, but honestly......this is what this kind of case drives people to think).

I'm very sorry for her loss, I truly am, but as said further down, there is every chance that this could not have been prevented anyway. What was the point in singling out this poor GP? "I'm suffering and so shall you"?

3andnomore · 30/09/2007 15:12

I think it's complete madness...whilst I feel for teh family, what did sueing for money achieve (other then a nice lumpsum.... ).
If she had Kids before, she must have taken FA before and she must have read on teh packet that indeed it's generally recommended to be taken 3 month or so before ttc....
saying that, I am sure I read somewhere that taking FA isn't even known for sure to reduce anything...and there is evenr esearch that suggest that FA increases the risk of m/c (although, maybe in a weird and warped way this does decrease the number of cases where something is not quite right, because there is also a therory that a body would expell an embryo if it wasn't perfect.... again ).
Admittedly I had a m/c before and after es and also bled with es, and read up a bit more, also about ways to possibly decrease the risk of cleft lip and palate, and took my research to the GP and he was happy to prescribe a higher dose FA to me, and with the pg's of my younger 2 I never had a bleed or anything...possibly coincidence though....

3andnomore · 30/09/2007 15:14

Nab...obviously she really didn't read the packet leaflat then ....arghhhhhhhhhhhhh

Blandmum · 30/09/2007 15:15

I can understand that the woman is grieving and I have sympathy for her. Anger is part of the grief process.

The people in this who raise my ire are the lawyers who will have orchestrated this, and the doctors insurance complany who will have settled out of court to save money and a more expensive lawsuit.

I knew a woman doctor who saw a man clolapse and pulseless when she was out jogging. She carried out CPR, saved his life, got someone to phone for an ambulance, and stayed with the man in the ambulance until he got to A and E. She was just out for a run, and this man was not her patient.

She cracked one of his ribs while she did CPR (and remember that she saved his life). He sued her and her insurance company settled out of court!

Ungrateful fucking scum

VeniVidiVickiQV · 30/09/2007 15:19

MB - that is the reason why when I did a First Aid course a few years ago, the instructor said that we should always consider ourselves first, and before doing anything ring 999.

Peachy · 30/09/2007 15:20

I think in this individual case MB's point about the woman has had a loss and is going through bereavement shuld make us all, whilst not necessarily agree, have some sypathy or at least empathy for the woman. none of us know how we would react if overtaken by griedf and although she shuldn't pesumably receive the money, surelya prenting webiste can try to have some underatndsing of that?

there's a checklist in my notes about whata dvice ahs been given- MW has ticked that I was taking folic,, despite me making it perfectly clear that I threw up every single tablet i took in my forst trimester . I was very when she ticked that box, I have to say. now I know why- so am extra .

Peachy · 30/09/2007 15:22

Mb that's what we were alwys told iN St johns- be aware that litigation can happen. IIRC (and was a few eyars back now) as members we were covered by some sort of insuance, wonder if they can still offer that?

3andnomore · 30/09/2007 15:24

Yes, I totally understand that she is grieving and I do have sympathy for that....but I still can't see how sueing for money changed anything....especially considering that there is absolute no knowing that taking FA would have made a blind bit of difference...

Peachy · 30/09/2007 15:25

I think its just a lashing out in anger / needinga reason- perfectly normal in grief

I am however seriously narked at the lawyers who are presumably advising her to cntinue with this case

franke · 30/09/2007 15:27

I wonder if this is another case of lazy journalism - I really want to believe that there is more to this case than is being reported here (it is the Mail after all). I fear though that mb may be right wrt lawyers, insurance cos. etc.

And on a personal note it stopped me in my tracks because I only just started taking folic acid having discovered I'm 6 weeks pregnant - does that mean my baby is now at risk? Common sense tells me probably not but nevertheless...

NAB3 · 30/09/2007 16:15

We were told we should sue the hospital when they failed to sew my c-section scar up properly, listen to me when I said it had come open and then left me for 15 months, but I didn't. They may have botched me up but they saved my son.

NAB3 · 30/09/2007 16:16

franke Don't worry. There is folic acid in lots of food now, I think, and I am sure all is going to be fine.

edam · 30/09/2007 16:24

Blimey, I can only assume the medical defence insurers didn't want the bother of defending the case. Costs would have been massive if it had gone to court. Her lawyers are clearly grasping bastards - I don't care how much they might bleat that they just have to do the best by their client, if the facts are as reported they were clearly trying it on.

Terrible that she's skipped away with all this money when people who are really harmed by serious medical negligence have to battle for years to get decent compensation to allow them, or their children, to live a decent life.

AitchTwoOh · 30/09/2007 16:30

i do get a bit bored with this 'lazy journalist' stuff, you know...

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