Family of disabled child sue NHS for 'wrongful birth'

[chamoiscreased]

here

I think you're caught in the crossfire fio.

I think you are both arguing with each other more or less the same thing so erm perhaps a misunderstanding?

Ilovemydog - leaving aside the compensation, the NHS doesn't provide the majority of care for disabled people, it's local councils who do. And therein lies the problem - some of it's considered health (equipment largely and therefore the responsibility of the PCT) and some of it is considered to be the responsibility of the council (respite care, home helps etc). When it comes to children, the LEA is also involved. There are lots and lots of grey areas and huge amounts of buck-passing goes on. So just disentangling whose responsibility it is and getting the right kind of support can take years.

If you can pay, everything suddenly becomes a whole lot simpler

fio that is what I meant, sorry if I got it wrong, you have have sort of won

early assesmenet is good(dd had it) but it won't mean a thing when in a year or so the local LEA try to move her to a cheaper 6th form option, now if we had won a case her school/college could have been written into it(I know people who have done it) so imo worth doing it just for that.,

Fio i know what you mean

I see Lenin, thank you

I'm finding this 'someone should have done something' approach that, as a society, we seem to be taking to so many of life's challenges a bit worrying.

Pregnancy is not always straightforward and sometimes you do get the fuzzy side of the lolly. I have no religious belief, so no belief that 'some of these things are meant to be', I just find it frustrating that we expect our problems to be the responsibility of someone else, that someone 'must' be at fault when things go wrong.

As many people have said, sad all round, but he looks a lovely little lad .

but sometimes people are negligent, I know people who have proved that in law, so should they then say "oh thats ok keep the money, my child will cope with the bare basics and live in povety"
if you were in a car crash you would expect the driver who was in the wrong to pay out(or the insurance company) yet once again a disabled baby/ person is not expected to get what they wre due.

We're not talking about people stubbing toes here. The children I know who had birth's mismanaged (e.g midwives not following standard procedures) are left with children who are very severely disabled. Lovely kids they might be but that's not much comfort to someone left having to find 24 hour care with a child unable to sit or even swallow. If it happens because it happens so be it (ds1 is severely disabled following a viral infection, so be it) - but if that happens because someone else has been incompetent and not met basic requirements of their job then why on earth shouldn't they be sued.

If someone allowed a car to run overyour child so leaving them brain damaged for the rest of their life because they'd decided they couldn't be bothered to put a handbrake on then you would presumably seek something - in part to ensure they never decided they couldn't be arsed to put the handbrake on again. If a child has their future life wiped out at birth because an individual hasn't kept up to date with training, or a trust hasn't funded sufficient numbers of midwives why on earth shouldn't the parents sue.

Vast numbers of people who could sue don't because the likelihood of being able to demonstrate the fault is too difficult.

ftw - i have a real loathing for the general ambulance-chasing mentality. and yet here i am with a legal file trying to work out why my apparently perfectly healthy 40 week gestation, 9lb fetus sustained brain damage due to lack of oxygen at some immediate point prior to birth. unfortunately the only way to do that is to get solicitors involved. it is absolutely likely that there was no negligence, and it will be put down to 'just one of those things' - cord compression at an unfortunate moment, whatever, but to expect people to not want to know what happened, including the child themselves when they are an adult is a bit odd.

when dd2 asks me 'why have i got cerebral palsy, mummy?' i'd like to at least be able to show her the file and say 'we tried our very best to find out darling'.

but in the end, we really are all just trying to 'get on with life's challenges' because we don't have any other option. the legal side is just something else that happens along the way whilst we try to make sense of life.

oh cross posted 2shoes.

And yes I'm not sure why parents sueing for negligence that has resulted in severe brain damage are seen as being somehow on the make or just seeking someone to blame.

madwomanintheattic I hope you do get answers, I di and it did help, at least what ever the out come, I know it wasn't anything to do with me.

saintlydamemrsturnip I think it is one of 2 things, first of course you have the people who believe disabled babies should not exist, secon peoplewho think if you have one you should just put up and shut up.

but there are times when things do go wrong

hence, medical negligence is a recognised field of law

it is not just enough to go , oh well, the MW/ obs/ surgeon totally cocked that up, but , sh*t happens..it is part and parcel . there are risks, sure, but if someone did something wrong, or did not do something qucikly enough , then should that be ignored?

i think if a birth is woefully mismanaged or there is negligence and someone sustains injury as a direct, proveable result of that, then that is exactly the time the law should be used

the law is also not jsut there to ensure there is financial compensation but that if someone was negligent / at fault in some way, it is prevented from happening again

thanks 2shoes. i'm fairly sanguine about it, we're two years in now and it mostly just sits on the back-burner. i'll be quite happy once i know everything was above board and was done within the guidelines.

in a way, that would be far preferable than going through the horrific experience of finding out that someone was to blame, which is a whole other kettle of fish. i really really hope that isn't the end to our story, and that it just does turn out to be an unavoidable 'accident'.

grief does funny things to people, and i do understand that initial flash of anger that parents have when they know a serious clinical error has occurred. the vast majority of people commencing legal stuff i suspect are doing it so that they are reassured that no-one is to blame. quite the opposite of the 'ambulance-chasing' stereotype.

lol at on the make though...
(peers through window at £650 trike that lasts two summers and then needs replacing)

ours just goes on(and on) tbh i only remember it when some one asks how it is going, it can take a year to 18 months just to get a report done ffs.

Seperate issue - is that the mother in the pic - she looks old for 25

Seperate issue - is that the mother in the pic - she looks old for 25

so difficult. i really think until you know someone who has been there it's v easy to make assumptions about people's motivations.

so many families struggling through these sorts of decisions.

People also forget you need to know if you want future children. If disabilitywasn't caused by birth it might have a genetic component. Given that people on here are advised to have an amnio if their risk falls below 1 in 250 for ds it's a bit much to expect those who have had a potential birth injury to just accept something happened and not worry about whether they have a 1 in 10 risk of a repeat through an unknown genetic disorder. Unfortunately as others have pointed out it's not easy to get this information without lawyers.