Hi
To cut a long story short, my son is 5 and autistic. I also think he has some problems with hearing in that he can't cope with loud and background noises although technically when tested his hearing was normal but with some question marks over how he perceived certain pitches.
My son had a very traumatic birth, 55 hours of so of labour with an emergency high forceps delivery where he was yanked out in 3 pulls. I questioned why on my son's notes it said proceed to emergency c section to which the obstetrician did actually say that 'You have to have him vaginally as I have an emergency c section to do' which to my mind suggests that he should have been a c section but they were short staffed as it was Xmas Eve. He stopped breathing for about 2 mins at birth although the medical team made light of it at the time. He was a strong healthy full term baby (12 days over) of 9lb 9oz so I think he probably stopped breathing due to shock/birth trauma. He was transverse and large and didn't turn during delivery. I was very frustrated to discover that the midwife had realised this several days before (when she tried and failed to do a membrane sweep at 7 days overdue) but not said anything or acted on it.
So, I am starting to wonder if my son suffered some degree of brain damage at birth and I have heard that autism can be linked to traumatic births. There were other little signs at the time too like the fact that he didn't hold his head up until over 4 months inspite of him being a large strong baby. In many ways he is very intelligent (good at reading etc) but overall the autism and his general developmental delay have meant he has had to be placed in a special school. It has also had implications for me as I basically had to give up a well paid job as finding childcare to meet his needs was nigh on impossible.
I know it may seem a bit late to be pursuing a claim for medical negligence based on his birth now but it is only really as his problems have become evident that I have started to look back and wonder if he was brain damaged due to birth trauma to me the big telltale sign is him stopping breathing at birth which I believe was due to the traumatic nature of the forceps.
I am hoping someone can point me in the direction of some good legal firms for medical negligence in childbirth cases? Ideally no win no fee ones that are reputable as I have limited funds. I'd also be interested to hear from anyone who has pursued a claim on similar grounds (pm me if you prefer)