Family of disabled child sue NHS for 'wrongful birth'

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here

Fio omhg that must have been terrible

Absolutely Fio

DS1 got off very lightly and may well not have sustained brth damage, if so that was luck.

For four weeks my BP was going skky high and iI would gbe admirred told it was just anxiety then sent home, when the local MW told me that the baby was worryingly small for dates the Obst told me I must have my dates wrong. When i fitted at home the local MW unit told me to come in, the MW there saw me fit and arranged an emergency transfer, the Obs at the hospital told the MW it was just anxiety again and I wuld be discahrged don't bother prepping me for a C-S. MW was so petrified she accompanied me in the ambulance after her shift ended, then had to get train home again. I was told I would be immediately dischareged on arrival (BP 165) but had to stay simplay as it was 3am. nobody spoke to me next day abr to send me for a scan, no discharge. next day i retyrned to a message that baby ahd lost significant weight, emergency induction today. During the birth babies heart was distressed but there was no anaesthetist so i couldn't have epidural (useful in BP cases), they wanted a C-S but the lab kept losing my bloods and there's a syndrome called HELLP they were scared of.

DS1 i think was saved by a typical-for-me as I now know extremly rapid second stage. He has a DX of as/ hfa though ahs atypical feattures which I guess are brain damage related but will never know, I think though we got off extremely luckily. In my next labour I changed hospitals, turned up in the ward only to find the Obs there demanding to know why I was in the labour ward- MW called him a twat and slammed door on him. I like to think they had gotr measure of him by then.

I tell you this to show that it only takes one person with a bee in their bonnet / dogmatic stance or similar to screw up a whole teams very best efforts. had ds1 been severely disable dI would have happily sued becue the man needed sacking.

I had my notes revieed by ds2's Obs and she confirmed eclampsia, I am extre,ely lucky that ds1 and I survived.

fio I also had a visit from a debriefing team which I then thought as normal but now know better

my offical 'debrief' consisted of the consultant explaining to me that there were plenty of worse cases he had been involved in. after all, we didn't know how disabled dd2 would be, whereas the mother of the baby whose neck they had broken with the botched forceps job knew he would need lifelong care and would be reliant on others for his whole life.

of course, at the time they weren't suggesting dd2 would be disabled, no no no. we would wait and see what happened. (with a physio, sn hv and slt referral to complement the 5 weeks of therapy she had already had in scbu - tube fed with no swallow reflex). my naivete scares me when i think too hard about it.

that's what i find tricky tbh - in hindsight it was blatantly obvious she would have cerebral palsy, but no-one said a thing - there was lots of hand clasping and 'i wish you the very best of luck'ing, but no-one mentioned the elephant in the corner.

'the lab kept losing my bloods and there's a syndrome called HELLP they were scared of.'

Unbelievable that this is still happening in the West at all!

A childhood friend of mine died last month, age 38, giving birth to her third, from HELLP.

They were able to get her daughter out, but she had a stroke and died.

ExP that is so sad, I used to help out on a helpline for people who has suffered Pre eclampsia and Hellp, and spoke to many mums who ahd lost a child. It's
not as active as it used to be but she is fab and has lots of info if the poor family ever need it

madwoman my debried took the form of 2 MWs standing there who had been at the birth repeatedly telling me I wouldn't have wanted a CS / epidural anyway would I really and they bet I was glad now.

usually I cower and say oh yes OK but for some reason I didnt, I told them the truth- it did bloody matter! I ended up with PTSD (morefrom the nobody believeing me thing I think) for a good while, until ds2 was born.

It's very sad (and excruciating for the people involved I imagine) that people, such as some of the ladies here, have to go down the legal route for anyone to say truthfully whether they missed things that shouldn't have been missed or whether they reasonably did everything in their power.

It's also sad that people have to prove that someone is at fault. These children are left with complex needs, regardless of the reason and should be provided with the help, equipment and means to live a dignified and full life.

I think that the issue of ensuring that the medical professionals are accoutable is seperate to the issue of compensation. What I mean is that parents should not have to establish that someone was at fault in order to access the funds necessary for their child (and themselves) to have a good quality of life.

Hang on peachy did you say this was Taunton? I know someone who developed full on eclampsia there about 3 years ago.

Sounds like ours riven. 2 nappies a day here as a 'donation' towards incontinence care. Large child/teen sized nappies are not exactly cheap.

Thanks Spicemonster for the clarification. I didn't realize that it was down to a different authority to help on a day to day basis as assumed that it would have been via the PCT (nursing, respite care).

Riven -- get a legal opinion sooner as would hate for time to run out before you could file a potential claim.

MrsT yep. Dismal that it is still happening, my ssiter was treated well with her PET but she was a 'typical case'- easy to spot, whereas I ahd a rarer peaking and troughing version but still it was being recorded as rising above 145 at least once in every 48 hours by a MW

But tehn, as I said a friend lost her baby when they turned her away in prem labour with a history of premmies so.....

But Riven, in a civilised society you and your daughter should get the help you need regardless of the cause and the burden of 'proof' should not fall to you. I'm just frustrated that it falls to parents to fight the weight of the Trusts. A seperate body should investigate negligence without parents having to go through all this and we, as a society, should be saying 'these children, regardless of the reason for their disability, are in the world and their care should be adequately funded'. A little less wine in the cellars of Westminster and a little more money where it's needed.

Riven ds1 has finally had higher rate care and mobility awarded indefinitely - hope this us the case for your dd too - it was our 4th set of forms too.

That's crap about the upfront cost of the WAV btw

I mean crap situation not you're talking crap!

Do those who think parents who sue are 'on the make' have any idea what actually happens?

It's not like you just get handed a cheque for £1.5million to stick in your bank account and do what you fancy with.

A good friend of mine has a 6 year old daughter with cerebral palsy and epilepsy as a result of midwifery incompetence (proven and liability admitted by the hospital trust). They started a legal process when she was about one; they are nowhere near the end despite the trust admitting liability, having made an interim payment (so that they could buy a house suitable for their needs and initiate a care package). They still undergo regular assessments and reviews by independent experts and have to travel to London from Hampshire to go through all the legal stuff. If they want to spend a penny of the money they have to do it through the lawyer who holds it in trust and assesses whether their intended expenditure meets the criteria of the trust.

Their daughter needs constant supervision as she is profoundly disabled and has seizures which cause her to stop breathing. They have night nurses as the parents were on their knees with exhaustion taking turns to stay up all night watching her, then her dad trying to work to keep the family fed and housed.

I can't believe anyone thinks that having a child that requires 24 hour care and will do for the rest of their life because someone screwed up shouldn't be compensated. No amount of money can compensate for death or disability but it can certainly make life a little easier.

I'm not saying they shouldn't be compensated, I'm saying that the funding for their care should be adequate outside of the burden of proof. It should not be necessary for parents to prove that the hospital (or whoever) was at fault in order to access a dignified level of financial support.

We've ended up in a situation where parents have to prove fault in order to secure an adequate level of care and I just don't think that's right.

Oh I totally agree funtimewincies - my post was more in response to one or two of the earlier posters who seemed to think that wanting money to help provide for your child was greedy.

riven you are right. there is now a 2 tier society amongst the disabeld children you have the ones who have won, they can just have everything they need, and the ones who like dd were disabled due to negligence, but haven't got the proof who have to put up with waiting for stuff. and when I talk about waiting I don't mean like a child waits for christmas, we have been waiting 5 months for a new toilet chair, oh to have the money and get it today.

we were lucky our notes were ok.......but a year for a doctor to write a report(a good doctor) is just crazy