Birth injury following delay in delivery

The claimant was born at 05:04. He was born in very poor condition and required intensive resuscitation. He was transferred to the Special Care Baby Unit and developed signs of asphyxia. He now suffers from cerebral palsy.

An action in negligence was brought on behalf of the claimant by his mother and Litigation Friend against the NHS Trust.

Experts for both parties agreed that the claimant suffered a profound period of asphyxia in the minutes before he was delivered, and that if he had been born 10 minutes earlier he would, in all probability, have escaped any significant injury.

It was agreed that the attending midwifes were (wrongly) reassured as to the claimant’s condition in the last period of the labour, because from when it was started at 04:10 until delivery at 05:04 the CTG trace was recording the maternal heart rate rather than the fetal heart rate.

Had the midwives either recognised that the CTG trace was either recording the maternal heart or that the trace was abnormal, medical assistance would have been sought and the Claimant would have been delivered earlier than 05:04.

Following a settlement meeting it was agreed that the Defendants would pay 85% of the damages to be assessed at a later date, subject to approval of the Court.

The settlement was approved by the High Court on 26 October 2009.