MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE
Deficiencies in Care
A mother sued the HSE for injuries sustained by her new born baby which she claimed arose due to a breach of duty of care owed to her and her baby by the HSE. It was pleaded on behalf of a four-year-old boy that there was a failure to induce labour twice and that he would have escaped injury if he had been delivered sooner. Because this did not happen, he suffers quadriplegic spastic cerebral palsy, he cannot speak and is visually impaired.
There were, it was claimed, deficiencies in care provided to his mother leading up to the birth of her son. Tipperary University Hospital apologized for the deficiencies in care and the case against the HSE was settled in the High Court with an interim payment of €4.58 million. The HSE admitted a breach of duty but denied the child suffered injuries as a result.
Counsel for the child said that his mother was discharged from the hospital on 22 May 2018. He said the case notes stated the labour ward was busy and the patient was happy to go home, which, he said, suggested operational pressures were the reason for the discharge. It was planned the mother be induced two days later. The HSE admitted that it was in breach of its duty of care in the management of the mother’s pregnancy on different occasions in May 2018, resulting in a failure to induce labour. It further admitted a breach in their duty of care in the management of the mother following the spontaneous rupture of membranes on 24 May 2018.
The cause of the boy’s cerebral palsy remained an issue in the case and there will be a review of the case in court in five years.
Meaney v HSE High Court 10 March 2023.
