Following the traumatic delivery of her son, Mrs LQ contacted Partner, Sue Man, to review her labour notes. Mrs LQ believed her labour had been negligently managed and that her son had been harmed by the delivery.
During her pregnancy, Mrs LQ was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia. At 40 weeks gestation, she was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital, Margate.
Her blood pressure was abnormally high at 167/105. She had oedema and high levels of protein in her urine. The doctors decided to induce her because of the pre-eclampsia, which was affecting her blood pressure. Mrs LQ and her baby’s heart rate would also be monitored.
The following day, at 11.15am Mrs LQ’s temperature spiked to 38.3º. By 11.45am, her baby’s heart rate was 160bpm. Mrs LQ was very concerned and in a lot of pain. She complained to a nurse that the doctors were taking too long to decide whether she could have a caesarean section.
By 12pm she was crying and screaming because she was in such severe pain. By around 1pm, her baby’s heartrate started to display signs that he was in distress. However, it wasn’t until 3.15pm that the consultant made the decision to proceed with a caesarean section. By 3.47pm, baby’s heartrate was bradycardic (abnormally slow).
At 3.55pm, Mrs LQ was finally taken to theatre for an emergency caesarean section.
At 4.05pm, Mrs LQ’s son was delivered from thick meconium. He was in poor condition - floppy and not breathing. He was resuscitated and taken to the neonatal ICU for cooling therapy to help limit damage to his brain caused by the severe perinatal asphyxia.
Mrs LQ’s son subsequently failed his new-born hearing test and mum wanted to know whether it was caused by the delay in delivering him.
After reviewing the labour notes, Sue agreed to act for her under a ‘no win no fee’ agreement.
The NHS Trust initially denied liability and blamed mum for delaying the delivery. Mum then issued Court Proceedings claiming for herself (for the psychiatric injury she sustained) and her for son (for severe high frequency hearing loss and possible brain damage). After serving the Court Proceedings the Trust admitted it had been negligent in delaying the delivery, but it still denied causing any permanent damage to Mrs LQ’s son.
The medical issues were numerous and complex involving medical experts from many different fields of medicine. Over time, the Trust eventually admitted causing her son’s hearing loss and settled the claim for a substantial 6 figure sum.
Mrs LQ’s son now has the compensation to ensure his needs will be met. This includes funds for private speech and language therapy, private hearing aids and equipment, private teacher of the deaf, touch-typing course, electronic note taker etc. all of which will help him reach his full potential.
Mrs LQ made the following comments:
“Sue has been the most amazing solicitor I could have asked for. Her dedication, compassion and kindness has made a huge impact in our family during a very difficult and painful process. You can find legal advice in several places, but this type of professional is very rare. If I ever need legal advice again, I would definitely contact Sue again.”