This Grandmother Filed a Lawsuit for Suffering Emotional Trauma from Daughter’s Childbirth

Family LawApril 15, 2021

Most family members are thrilled to watch their loved ones give birth, but one grandmother was particularly horrified after witnessing a traumatizing birth of her grandchild, so much so that she claimed to have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after the ordeal and interestingly, she won millions in damages!

Traumatized by the Incident

The High Court ordered the Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust to pay millions in damages after a family was left traumatized from horrific childbirth.

The relatives said that they suffered from PTSD after witnessing chaotic childbirth that left the baby with neurological damage for the rest of her life. The newborn was not breathing for 12 minutes after the doctors delivered her, so the mom and the grandmother presumed that their bundle of joy had not survived.

The baby was presumed dead by the grandmother after not breathing for 12 minutes

As per reports, the baby came out purple and flat with a swollen head after the negligence from the medical staff responsible for the delivery.

The lawsuit victory is welcoming news for families who are in a similar predicament, exposing the National Health Service to the risk of paying tons of money to affected parties.

However, hospitals have then and again debated that they warn visitors, relatives, and others that procedures are traumatic in nature.

Negligence

The baby girl weighed 4.5 kg when she was born and the court found that the hospital was negligent starting from antenatal care.

Moreover, offhand midwives reportedly told the mother that bigger babies tend to slip out when she tried to raise her concern about the weight and size of the child during check-up appointments.

During the birth, the child’s shoulder got caught onto the mother’s pelvic bone, which resulted in an 11-minute delay in delivery.

The midwives prevented an obstetrician from entering the room during the emergency

Because of the delay in delivery, the baby’s blood supply was cut off leading to an acute hypoxic-ischaemic insult. The complications caused severe neurological damages to the baby and she will have to live with physical and mental limitations for the rest of her life.

Worse, the midwives in charge purposely prevented a specialist obstetrician to enter the picture during the critical moment. To mask what happened, hospital personnel deliberately destroyed documents immediately when legal moves were taken.

Previously, the courts were hesitant to award damages to the family who claimed they were traumatized after seeing different procedures in hospitals. However, Mr Justice Goss ultimately found that the incident was sufficiently horrifying for the mom and the grandmother.

Leigh Day medical negligence expert Suzanne White said that most institutions would try to settle this outside the court so as not to set a precedent.

Another Case

One of the twins died from brain damage

17 Dads’ Rolf Dalhaug also demanded to be paid after claiming he suffered from PTSD due to the birth of one of the twins, Thor, who died in 2013 at the Lincoln County Hospital.

During the delivery, the attending doctor used forceps to pull out the baby after his head got stuck inside during the Caesarean procedure.

The child died within an hour due to brain damage from the unorthodox way of pulling the baby out. He sees the recent ruling as essential to similar cases in the future.