A heart-rending case has seen a girl whose premature birth was delayed by half an hour go uncompensated after a judge ruled that the hold-up did not cause her lifelong disabilities.
The girl was delivered ten weeks prematurely, weighing less than three pounds. She was on life support for days before she started having seizures and tests revealed that she had suffered devastating brain damage.
She had developed cerebral palsy and her life would always be blighted by learning difficulties and epilepsy.
The Royal Wolverhampton hospitals NHS Trust admitted that the birth was delayed ‘due to a fault in its systems’ and the judge found that that delay had extended to 30 minutes.
In dismissing the girl’s seven-figure claim, however, the judge ruled that the damage to the young girl’s brain had been sustained whilst she was still in her mother’s womb and that ‘negligence on the part of medical staff’ had not caused or contributed to her injuries.