Birth negligence and nervous shock case, likely to result in millions.

16 May 2024

When Julie arrived at her local hospital at 40 weeks pregnant, she was excited to give birth to her second child and enter the next phase of family life. Unfortunately, the ordeal ahead would result in brain damage to her newborn baby caused by medical negligence, leaving Julie with a psychiatric injury.

Mum awarded 250k in birth injury nervous shock case.

Complications during labour.

During labour, Julie’s blood pressure was tracking high, so medical staff gave her a drug to reduce it. This medication can be passed onto the baby which might then develop hypoglycaemia as a result – a potentially dangerous low blood sugar condition. Therefore, the hospital has a policy that says it must monitor a baby’s blood glucose levels within the first 48 hours of birth to diagnose hypoglycaemia earlier rather than later.

However, the hospital failed to follow its own policy, and didn’t monitor glucose levels in Julie’s baby. By the third day of life, her baby boy Marcus began to have seizures due to undiagnosed hypoglycaemia. Sadly, this resulted in her child suffering brain damage.

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Julie’s compensation journey begins.

Julie turned to Law Partners for help. We got to know her, and began investigating all the details of her case to uncover the best possible outcomes for her family.

Firstly, it will take several more years for Marcus’ brain injury to stabilise, at which point the amount of compensation payable will become clearer in terms of pain and suffering, costs of care, need for equipment and staff, lost income, and medical treatments. Law Partners will assist Marcus and Julie by managing this medical negligence claim on their behalf at the appropriate time. It’s a case that could run into the millions of dollars.

However, in the meantime, we wanted to help Julie with a separate compensation claim now that addresses the significant pain and suffering to her mental health, providing money for her family now as they prepare for the long road ahead.

A successful psychiatric compensation claim of $250,000.

Julie’s team at Law Partners gathered evidence proving the hospital didn’t comply with its own policy of monitoring her baby’s blood glucose levels within the first 48 hours of life. And with a shortage of relevant paediatric specialists on hand at the time, we also collected expert insights from an international endocrinologist and neonatologist, both from London, to prove our case.

Ultimately, the hospital admitted they breached their duty of care, not complying with their own policy following the administration of blood pressure reducing medication during Julie’s labour. They recognised this lapse caused brain damage to Marcus, which resulted in Julie’s psychiatric injury, and we were able to negotiate a compensation settlement out of court for a nervous shock claim.

We got $250,000 for Julie now, which is made up of financial compensation for psychiatric treatment expenses, medications, and pain and suffering.

As Julie says, “I never thought my family would have to endure such a devastating outcome. We still have a long road ahead, but I’m extremely grateful to Law Partners for supporting us through everything. This compensation will go a long way toward helping us navigate family life as we deal with Marcus’ condition, and wait for a further compensation decision in several years.

“Thank you to Elizabeth Utting and Law Partners for working so closely with us to get such a positive result.”