Advice needed regarding finding out online advice about legal rights and specialist info regarding bodged care and treatement of mum in labour and aftercare..

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Hi,

Am in need of help of finding out medical info online regarding advice of specialist in regard to treatment of labour and c-sec.

My sis recently had baby, and it seems serious errors have been made. From info I've been able to gather the following happened...

1. Consultant advise to break waters when baby high up (she was induced late)

2. Then baby was tried to be delivered naturally after long & difficult labour which then resulted in emergency c-sec as my sis hemagranged (can't spell!) and cervis almost split in 2. Med bods took over 2 hours putting her back together.

3. She was discharged from hospital but has been back several times complaining of pains and "Not feeling right below - feels like she leaking" - only to be sent back home.

Yesterday she saw mw who sent her back to hospital as was having clear fluid leak - this has now turned out to be (they think) a tear between bladder and wall of vagina. She is having a scan tomorrow with blue dye, and possibility an op to repair whatever it is.

Care whilst in hospital has been appalling. She is severely tramatised by the whole labout and c-sec - burst into tears whenever mentioned, and the hosp have not shared her notes (got to write and ask for it) nor explained what went wrong verbally, even though she has asked for this. She was left without pain meds for long period of time, and in one case took over an hour to get nurse to come to room to see her, despite pressing buzzer - nurse only came in end when she rang my mum in tears and my mum contacted hospital.

So want to know if legally if there's anything that can be done with regard to hospital treatment and decisions made. Any websites links would be really useful so I can pass these onto my Mum.

Your poor sister, how absolutely dreadful for her. I'm bumping this thread in the hope that someone can offer advice on what to do next. Best wishes.

You could also try posting in legal?

your poor sister, I hope that they can help her out soon.

I would suggest this website in first instance:-

www.avma.org.uk - it's a charity to help people who have had what they term a "medical accident".

Legally - for a negligence claim she would need to get evidence to show that not only was the care sufficiently substandard to be classed as negligent, but also that the damage to her was due to the poor care (i.e. that it wouldn't have happened anyway, even if she had better care). medical negligence claims are not the easiest thing to prove. These days the NHS and courts are keen to try mediation - so it maybe that this could be resolved without having to go through the full court procedures.

re:advice of specialist - if your sister does go down the legal route, the top law firms in this area are likely to have on their staff former nurses/mws who can cast an eye over the notes etc in the first instance. the solicitors would then look at finding the appropriate medical expert for an impartial report/opinion.