midwife has suggested starting legal action over dd's birth - anyone been there?

[Hangingbellyofbabylon]

I'm 17 weeks pregnant and have the same midwife as last time with dd2. Dd2 stopped moving at 35 weeks, went to maternity unit and my midwife sent me in an ambulance to the other local hospital with instructions to deliver dd straight away as the trace was basically pathological. However, the hospital monitored me for a futher 10 hours and even sent me out for a long walk before there was a change of shift and the new consultant took one look at the notes and ordered an immediate emergency c-section.

No follow up after birth and no paediatric follow-up for dd. Cut to 8 months later when I started the fuss and several months later when dd was finally diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 13 months.

So since then every ounce of my strength and time has been focused on dd and I had managed to not think to much about the birth.

When I saw my midwife a few weeks back she was shocked - she did know they left me for a long time but didn't know about dd's CP. She feels that it must be followed up. The paed has told us that she thinks the cp was caused by whatever stopped her moving the day before the c-section but of course there is no proof that is wasn't caused by leaving her for all of those extra hours. Also she says that even if we take the CP out of the equation then we still need to do something about the fact that their failure to deliver dd almost resulted in her death as her traces were so pathological.

I don't know how I feel - midwife suggested requesting my notes which I have done but guess what? my notes have gone missing... there's a possibilty that they are in transit between hospitals but I'm very cynical.

I have read that starting the legal process is long and arduous and basically takes over your life. I just don't know if I'm ready or willing to go down that route but I do feel that I need answers and someone ultimately is responsible for ignoring the advice of my midwife and leaving dd in an awful state for over 10 hours.

Sorry, this is long. It's been playing on my mind for a few weeks and I just don't have anyone is RL who has even a vague idea of the emotions and implications that all of this means.

Anyone with experience / advice? thanks.

So sorry you are going through this. Sorry don't have any knowledge of this, but I am sure it must be worth it to get some answers. Someone will come along who knows all about it.

hanging - I have no experience of med neg cases - just some experience of personal injury cases from the professional perspective. Don't feel obliged to rush into any decision - bearing in mind that technically speaking any legal action by your DD could be taken until she is 21 (different limitation rules for children), so a delay of weeks or months in deciding what to do next doesn't really make a huge difference. In this type of case, medical expert evidence will be crucial - to show both that the delay in the section was negligent practice AND that it caused harm/further harm to your DD.

you may find this site useful - www.avma.org.uk - they have a helpline and information, and also a case studies page, including a damages claim over a mishandled birth.

I imagine that this is a very emotional issue, thinking that someone doing a better job could have prevented your DD's problems,and having to deal with this whilst being PG must be particularly awful.

Yup. Am currently sueing hospital re ds1 birth (shoulder dystocia resulting in Erbs Palsy). It's been ongoing for 6 years!

Mostly, the lawyers just get on with it (they are making a bloody fortune! ) I am the advocate for my son, not sueing for myself, and he gets legal aid, so we have no costs. Initially there was a lot of contact as we went through what had happened, they built up a picture, got our statements etc, but after this, it settled down to 6 monthly updates! Now we are ready to go to court (looking at September of this year) and we are having case conferences, exchanging witness statements, having what they called 'bundles' (lots and lots of documents!) delivered to the house to read before the meeting, we've had to take ds1 for many examinations, had people come all the way up here to see him at the house...

Doesn't help though that we moved a few years ago and are now 200 miles away from our solicitors! because we have to travel down there to meet up with our team.

email me [email protected] and I would be happy to talk about it

I followed this route when my daughter was about 5. As Hecate says, initially when you have to give your statement it can be busy and upsetting and then it settles down whilst they obtain all the notes. My daughter had had every test possible, MRI scans etc so didn't need any extra appointments.

They will then get the case looked at independently and obtain a report. This took about 2 years in our case. We also got legal aid although sometimes your family legal protection on your house insurance will cover it if you had it at the time.

The independent paediatrician felt my daughter had been managed properly by the hospital and it was just one of those things. I was very relieved and did find 'closure' in this. It was initially stressful but I am glad I did it because it did answer my questions. That part of it was the most important to me. It was hard at times to relive it all and see it written down.

intresting reading as am thinking requestin ds notes as i do know that his heart rate dropped and stayed dropped several times even the midwife said shes had a previoussection shall we just get this baby out..

But they turned up drip even more but contractions but not lot dilation , just beforethey sent me upstairs dr did a internal andsaid i dont think this baby is head down anymore ,The midwife said dont be sill was on scan before we started intduction

ff long night of contractons and decsion next day at 3pm to do c-section suprise on drs face as ds was not head down was infact lying across top of tummy with arms /legs down so do wonder if in that time if cord was being compressed and the dropepd heart rate was indication

mind the paed 2 years on was quick to point put his apgar scores were good after birth but then so was my dd yet 5 hrs afterwards she was litterally fighting for life in neonatal intensive care

I am married to a barrister who does clinical negligence work. He says this is worth foilowing up, especially if the cerebral palsy is bad. However he says that the paediatric neurologists may well say that the damage was done at arounbd the time the baby stopped moving so you should not get your hopes up too high of a successful action. MRI scanning and the view of an expert paediatric radiologist will probably help to identify the type of injury and when it occurred. Good luck with it. He also says that it is worth going to solicitors who are on the Law Society Clinical Negligence Panel because they will know what they are doing and whether you can get Community Legal Service Commission (Legal Aid) support. Send me a private message if you want andIll se if hecan help any more.

I used to be a clinical negligence lawyer before children! To be successful you have to prove fault and that this caused the injuries, you would then be compensated for the difference the negligent delay made to the outcome. It is worth pursuing as a child gets legal aid on their own finances - so it wouldn't cost you any money and if you succeed might receive care and equipment costs etc which are likely to be more generous and certain than what you would get from NHS / local authority + if you LO would have had a good outcome with earlier delivery you can claim what they would have earnt in their lifetime etc. It can be stressful and long process but the lawyer will deal with it for you mostly and might give your LO financial security they would not otherwise have. Look at Chambers and Partners website for list of top lawyers in your part of the country. Good ones will visit you at home. By the way legal aid lawyers are very badly paid! They earn alot less than the hospital lawyers.

Amen to that. this idea of fat cat lawyers on legal aid...

If you feel that a legal process might bring closure go for it, but I would recommend waiting until after your current pregnancy.

You need to do what is right for you. I have decided not to sue because I feel my care was good and what happened to my son was one of these things. Your case looks different.

Thanks for all of the advice - I think the first step has got to be getting hold of my notes. I'm going to chase that up tomorrow. I think as a starting point going through ny notes properly with my midwife will give me a better idea of how to proceed.

I have never seen my notes.
the solicitor got an expert to look. Imo talking you your midwife would be a mistake.
the person looking at them has to be unbiased.