Girl suffers following mother’s cardiac arrest during delivery

M is a young girl who sustained an injury at birth after her mother went into cardiac arrest during labour. This caused M to be deprived of oxygen, and resulted in a brachial plexus injury causing major weakness to her left arm.

She has been left with a significant disability, has been through two surgeries, and will be limited in the career she will be able to pursue as an adult.

Our approach

We asserted that those looking after M’s mother were negligent in a number of ways – they failed to properly insert M’s mother’s epidural and they also failed to recognise this mistake, leading to the cardiac arrest. We argued that had these incidents not occurred, M would not have suffered her injury.

The outcome

Our client was awarded £166,000 in compensation.

The case in detail

M was a little girl who sustained an injury at birth. Her mother during the labour suffered a cardiac arrest following an incorrect administration of the epidural into the subarachnoid space. During the period of cardiac arrest, M was deprived of oxygen. Consequent upon this it was necessary to deliver M urgently and during the delivery process M Suffered a left brachial plexus injury. She suffered major weakness in her left arm and it was necessary for her to undergo surgery on two occasions but despite this she was left with significant disability which is likely to result in her being restricted with future job opportunities.

Luckily M did not suffer any form of brain injury despite a period of hypoxia during her birth.

This was a complex claim which required careful consideration with medical experts in the fields of Obstetrics, Anaesthesia and Orthopaedic Surgery. The medical evidence suggested that the hospital were negligent in inserting the epidural into the subarachnoid space, that there was a failure to recognise that it had been incorrectly inserted which resulted in M’s mother suffering cardiac arrest. The evidence from the independent obstetrician confirmed that had M been delivered without the obstetric emergency then she would not have sustained the brachial plexus injury.

The hospital defended this claim but it was only through our perseverance and sheer hard work that we were able to resolve M’s claim to ensure that she was suitably compensated for the lifelong injury which she had sustained to her left arm at birth.