Judgment and £250,000 interim payment for child with cerebral palsy after delayed delivery and excessive cooling

Boyes Turner’s cerebral palsy solicitors secured a liability judgment and £250,000 interim payment in an ongoing claim for a young child with cerebral palsy.

Delayed fetal monitoring after reduced fetal movements

After an uneventful pregnancy, our client’s mother called the hospital’s Day Assessment Unit (DAU) on an afternoon at just under 39 weeks of pregnancy after realising that she hadn’t felt any fetal movements since her shower that morning. She spoke to a midwife and told her about the absence of fetal movements since earlier in the day. Correct treatment would have been to advise the mother to come to the hospital straight away and for CTG monitoring of the fetal heart rate to be started within 30 minutes of her arrival. Instead, she was given a timed appointment to attend at the DAU almost an hour later. On arrival for her appointment, she was left to wait for a further hour before she was seen.  Only then was CTG monitoring started. The CTG immediately showed reduced variability which together with the absence of fetal movements was a strong indication of fetal distress. The registrar (doctor) was asked to review.

Delayed caesarean section after abnormal CTG shows fetal distress

The doctor examined our client’s mother and noted the reduced variability on the CTG and a plan to obtain a consent form for caesarean section and anaesthetic review. Nearly half an hour later, the doctor reviewed the mother again and performed a bedside ultrasound scan which showed no fetal movements. The doctor told the mother that a caesarean section would be needed if the CTG didn’t improve, and then left the room. When the CTG had been abnormal for a full hour of monitoring, a student midwife went to ask the doctor for a plan. After a further review, the doctor had a discussion with the consultant. A decision was made to carry out a category 2 urgent caesarean section for fetal distress. 

Whilst our client’s mother waited for transfer to the operating theatre, the CTG showed shallow decelerations in the fetal heart rate, suggesting a further deterioration in the unborn baby’s condition. The registrar was called but prioritised attending a staff handover before proceeding with the mother’s caesarean section. The baby suffered a bradycardia (dangerously low drop in heart rate) before the caesarean delivery eventually took place, four and a half hours after her mother’s original call to the DAU.

HIE birth injury exacerbated by excessive cooling

Our client was born floppy, acidotic (a sign of oxygen deprivation) and in very poor condition with the knotted umbilical cord wrapped four times around her neck. She was resuscitated and transferred to the neonatal unit. Therapeutic cooling was started in the neonatal unit at three hours of life, but her temperature was allowed to drop to a dangerously low temperature far below the recommended 33.5°C for several hours during her transfer to a more specialist hospital. The excessive cooling resulted in her heart rate and blood pressure dropping to unsafe levels. During her ongoing neonatal care she developed seizures, hypotension (low blood pressure), renal (kidney) and hepatic (liver) dysfunction. She was changed to palliative care and was discharged for complex care at home.

An MRI brain scan a few days after birth revealed severe and widespread injury to her brain from hypoxic ischaemic injury (HIE).

Early Notification (EN) scheme failed to help family after critical HSIB maternity investigation

Our client’s family approached us for help after NHS Resolution’s Early Notification (EN) scheme failed to provide them with help despite the critical findings of an HSIB maternity investigation into their care. We pursued their claim and issued proceedings on the mother and child’s behalf when NHS Resolution failed to respond fully to our letter of claim. After further delays, NHS Resolution served a defence, which admitted breach of duty (negligence) but failed to address whether the failings in care had caused injury to our clients. We made a Part 18 request for clarification which resulted in a full admission of liability. This was based on the defendant accepting that the delay in delivery had made our client’s brain injury worse and as it wasn’t possible to say how our client would have been without the additional injury caused by the negligence, our client is entitled to be compensated for 100% of her injuries.

Liability judgment and £250,000 interim payment

We secured a liability judgment in relation to the child’s injury and a settlement in the mother’s related psychological injury claim. 

Our client has four-limb dyskinetic cerebral palsy with global developmental delay. She is doubly incontinent, partially deaf and non-verbal. She is gastrostomy-fed, and cannot walk or sit independently. She will always be totally dependent on others. A £250,000 interim payment will be used to meet her immediate needs whilst we work with her family and our experts to value the claim. 

The family’s privacy is protected by an anonymity order.

If your child has cerebral palsy or neurological disability as a result of medical negligence, or you have been contacted by HSSIB/MNSI or NHS Resolution, you can talk to a solicitor, free and confidentially, for advice about how to respond or make a claim by contacting us.