Daily Mail article

[eidsvold]

not sure if any of you read the daily mail but there was an article in there about a couple who are seeking damages as they were not informed regarding amnios. The wife was 37 and fell pregnant with third child..... third child was born with down syndrome and a heart defect ( like my dd). They sued ( i think) gp, midwife and perhaps the hospital ?...and are to receive a substantial amount ( £500 000?) - sorry skim read the article as it made me so mad - for the trauma and the ongoing care of this child. The mother is also quoted as saying had she had an amnio and it said the child had down syndrome she would have definitely terminated the pregnancy.

Basically they are claiming the gp and various other medical staff were negligent for not informing the mother regarding amniocentesis testing because she was pregnant at 37. This was her third child!! Does she have no idea of testing in pregnancy - given the very high profile of amnios I am surprised that she is now claiming she did not know about them particularly for women who are pregnant and aged over the magic 35 year old mark.

I just feel a little upset and very sad for that child growing up in an environment like that and very angry at the ignorance of her parents..... nothing like highlighting the very positive experience of having a child with down syndrome!

eidsvold
I havent read the article but judging by your post the parents sound disgusting. They seem to have no feelings and to be money grabbers. If the parents feel that way why didnt they put her up for adoption and allow a decent family to love and care for this child.
I am a great believer in what goes around comes around.
Has the court ordered the compensation for the childs needs throughout life or awarded it to the parents. I hope its the first option.

i have yet to go back and read it more closely but the gist of it was enough to upset me and so will probably go back to the article later today.

ohh I have read more and they say the money is going to her care for life... they decided to go ahead with legal action when she was in hospital her thymus gland was removed and they suspect it was traded with a pharmaceutical company for medical equipment(? - never heard of that happening before)

They also said they were very distressed to learn of her condition when she was born - weren't we all distressed to hear about our children - and I even had the benefit of foresight in that it was strongly suspected my dd had down syndrome - in fact had she not it would have been a miracle.... still did not stop me crying.

I saw this too and was really really upset by it! How on earth can any mother say that if she had known her baby would have special needs, she would have aborted it? How could she look in her daughter's face and wish that she was not there?

My nephew was treated at Alder Hey and they desperately need funds for the accommodation for parents, and so on. They tried really hard to cater for my sister whilst her son was in there, but they do rely heavily upon donations. It makes me sick to think that this couple will now pocket all this cash, they are basically taking it away from other parents in similar situations!

And they even had the nerve to say that the Doctors catholicism probably influenced his decision not to offer her an amnio! The Doctor made a genuine mistake on her forms, he marked her age as 27 instead of 37 - but it is not just up to him to offer her those tests anyway! Does she not have a mouth of her own???? My sister was pregnant at 37 and offered the test, she refused. When it was found out at 30 weeks that her baby had Downs the hospital took full responsibility for not insisting that she take the test, and they even offered her an abortion at that late stage!

What can I say, sometimes the whole of society just disgusts me!

Ridiculous- although age increases the risk more babies with downs are born to younger mothers anyway (as there are more babies in total born to younger mothers). This whole "I have decided my life will be exactly like this and if I don't get what I want I wil sue" totally disgusts me.

And to say they would have terminated- having has the child- revolting. (I do understand that people choose to terminate- although I wouldn't do it myself) Can you imagine how the child would feel hearing that.

I feel sorry for that child as well eidsvold.

It makes me wonder what will happen next time I get pregnant - we are not planning for dd to be an only child - not only will I be over the magic 35, I also already have a child with down syndrome....I can see myself having to fight not to have a barrage of tests....

but i felt that was bad as you said jim jams....having had the child and then to say had you known you would have terminated!! poor poor child.

Just you tell them eidsvold- unless your daughters down syndrome was due to a translocation (which you would know about) you're no more at risk than any other woman of your age. That should shut them up!

This kind of thing always really upsets me. I remember reading about a couple who were suing after a vasectomy went wrong and the wife got pg. They just kept saying "We don't want this child, this has caused so much disruption in our lives, we are very unhappy...etc, etc." I can't remember how old the child was, but she was onld enough to understand her parents repeatedly saying 'we don't want her' it just made me so sad for that poor little girl. Surely everyone knows that a vasectomy isn't 100% guaranteed and to get all this publicity just seemed so terrible. How could you be that insensitive? They obviously hadn't considered her feelings at all. She is going to grow up knowing that she is not wanted and I think that is a terrible, terrible thing to do to a child.

eidsvold, I am pregnant again. There is an increased chance of having another baby with DS even if your first just has non-disjunction T-21 - it's not the 1:100 you often see but a slightly more complicated calculation I cannot remember! Based on my age (26) and the fact that we already have a child with DS it is 1:200.
We did decide to have CVS done this time round (last time we refused all screening tests), mainly because my dh is very anxious to find out if everything is ok. I saw my GP at six weeks and told her, she asked me if I knew what the alternatives were etc, I said I'd spent a long time looking into it and this is what we decided.
Saw the fetal diagnostic chap a week ago, he was also very good about it all and did a scan to check nuchal fold & nasal bone presence. The measurements were all normal so he said our chance of this baby having DS came down to 1:500. He asked several times if we were still wanting to go ahead with the CVS, always referred to the baby as 'baby' rather than 'fetus' and pointed out the fingers, toes etc to us. We got the results the next day. He said that the chance of this baby having a heart defect is negligible as dd's heart defect is linked to DS, and that we don't need a fetal echo.
I did feel terribly uneasy about it all - a big mixture of guilt and fear. It is a very difficult decision to make either way.

Congratulations 2under2 on your pregnancy.

Anais I remember the vasectomy lawsuit!!!!

Some people have no feelings. SO sad. I feel so sorry for those poor kids growing up in an enviroment like that.

I saw your email earlier today 2 under2 and will get back to you but I was very pleased to here about your pregnancy... oh dear when it comes to me then my chance will be quite high although I think they had worked it out at about 1 in 100 ( same chance of us having twins...) We have decided we will not be having any invasive testing and will probably not have the blood test either although nuchal fold and nasal bone we would as it just involved a scan.

once again congrats.