Pages On: Birth Injury
Having a child is mostly a magical experience, however, preventable complications can arise. Medical professionals hold a duty of care to all patients, and pregnant people are no different. Injuries during childbirth can occur to the mother and baby where doctors and nurses act negligently. It can have seriously damaging consequences for the life of the child, such oxygen starvation leading to cerebral palsy. Such conditions can render a child essentially helpless, needing constant care. This not only removes the livelihood of the child, but the parents also. If you’ve suffered a birth injury, and feel medical negligence is to blame, you may be entitled to claim compensation.
Overwhelmed NHS trust's A&E and maternity units “unsafe”
Posted: 30 January 2016
Posted in: Birth Injury, Medical Negligence, Wrongful & Accidental Death
Services at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust have been deemed “unsafe” by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and an inspector has recommended that the hospital should be placed into special measures. It was found that there was a lack of staff in maternity and A&E and reported that nine babies had died in the womb in one year. Inspectors also found that patients attending A&E were not always being adequately triage scored, and that timely treatment was not always forthcoming. 23% rise in emergency admissions In its report, the CQC pointed out that…
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NHS birthing error sees £11m payout to cerebral palsy sufferer
Posted: 30 December 2015
Posted in: Birth Injury, Head and Brain Injuries, Medical Negligence
An NHS trust has paid out £11.5 million in compensation to a boy that now suffers with cerebral palsy as a result of birthing complications. Now 5-years-old, the boy was delivered at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, where hospital staff admitted that had he been born 11 minutes earlier, he would not have suffered any harm. It was heard that his umbilical cord prolapsed during birth, which resulted in a lack of oxygen to his brain. Had this been recognised by midwives earlier, there would have been no lasting damage…
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‘Multiple-birth’ antenatal care raises questions
Posted: 1 December 2015
Posted in: Birth Injury, Medical Negligence
A recently released report has flagged up some serious concerns surrounding ‘multiple-birth’ antenatal care. The report published by the Twins and Multiple Births Association and the NCT found that the care varies drastically across England. A survey of 1,400 parents found patients in the South East and West Midlands to be receiving the worst care, while those in the North East had the best. The report highlighted the fact that NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) guidelines on antenatal care were not being implemented, and as a…
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Weekend babies have “significantly” greater chance of death
Posted: 25 November 2015
Posted in: Birth Injury, Medical Negligence, Wrongful & Accidental Death
New research has revealed that babies born over the weekend in England have a “significantly” higher chance of dying than those born during the week. The research was carried out by the Imperial College London, which found that there were 7.1 deaths per 1,000 babies delivered during weekends. The study took over 1.3million births into account. The researchers made the worrying finding that if every day had the same death rate as a Tuesday, which was the weekday with the lowest, there would be a total of 770 fewer baby…
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Scheduled review of newborn health care
Posted: 21 August 2015
Posted in: Birth Injury, Medical Negligence, Wrongful & Accidental Death
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has announced that it will be carrying out a review of the health care available to newborn and young babies with severe health problems. Where incidents in the past have tainted the reputation of newborn health care, such as the case of Elizabeth Dixon who died fourteen years ago after a breathing tube was not inserted properly, the CQC says that it wants to carry out a series of inspections to identify the barriers that are preventing the NHS from providing ‘outstanding’ care. The report…
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Hospital errors caused stillbirth
Posted: 19 February 2015
Posted in: Birth Injury, Medical Negligence, Wrongful & Accidental Death
Medical experts have ruled that a baby girl delivered stillborn could have been born healthy if there had been no medical errors. The mother was repeatedly turned away from Hull Royal Infirmary during her pregnancy in 2011 and was categorised as a ‘low risk’ pregnancy, despite having suffered a haemorrhage only days before her due date. The baby was delivered stillborn. The hospital apologised for the failings and awarded her £25,000 in compensation. Medical experts carried out an investigation surrounding the stillbirth and found that the baby could have been…
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NHS Short of 2,300 midwives
Posted: 1 February 2014
Posted in: Birth Injury, Medical Negligence
A recent report into maternity care has uncovered that a lack of NHS funding is putting mothers and babies at serious risk. The most concerning finding was that the NHS is currently short of 2,300 midwives for the UK’s current birth rates. The report has sparked great criticism from the Commons public accounts committee, arguing that the Department of Health and NHS England should be in control of “something as fundamental” as ensuring that there are enough midwives. The report did not only highlight the extreme shortage of midwives, but it…
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