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Solihull woman sues hospital for birth injuries after 36 years |
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28 May 2008 |
A Solihull woman who was injured during her birth 36 years ago is to sue the maternity hospital, claiming negligence.
Helen Walker was born in July 1972 at the Birmingham Women's Hospital after a very prolonged delivery.
A Solihull woman who was injured during her birth 36 years ago is to sue the maternity hospital, claiming negligence.
Helen Walker was born in July 1972 at the Birmingham Women's Hospital after a very prolonged delivery. It was thought at first that she might not survive. She eventually recovered enough to go home, though her progress continued to be slow.
It was more than two years later that she was eventually diagnosed with permanent brain damage.
She is now 35 and still lives at home with her parents, Michael and Maureen. She has little vocabulary and needs constant care and supervision.
Her case against the hospital has this week been issued at the high court in London. It has taken this long to proceed because Helen's parents were unaware at the time that a claim could be brought for a situation such as this, and then subsequently believed it had been left too late.
Publicity in another case involving Helen's solicitors supported their long held belief and hope that Helen's brain damage could mean she was able to make a claim and they contacted East Anglia-based Kester Cunningham John in December 2001
Since then, detailed and lengthy investigations and correspondence with the West Midlands strategic health authority's lawyers has taken considerable time.
The family's lawyer is Tom Cook, a partner and specialist in clinical negligence with law firm Kester Cunningham John.
'Notes taken whilst Helen was being monitored show that she was suffering from foetal bradycardia, a potentially dangerously low heart beat,' he explains.
'The birth should have been induced as soon as the condition was recognized. But instead, Mrs Walker was left virtually unattended for another 10 hours before action was taken and Helen was delivered by caesarean.
'As a result, what should have been a perfectly normal baby has suffered tragic brain injury, which has robbed her of a normal life and left her wholly dependent on her parents.
'Helen is a happy young woman given her circumstances and her family love her and look after her very well. She attends a day centre, but specialist care of the kind she needs and which might make the difference to her quality of life is extremely expensive.
'Our claim against the hospital seeks to provide a financial settlement which will provide for her future. Her parents are aware that the time will come when they won't always be there to look after her and they are concerned to provide the resources which will reassure them as to her future.'
Helen's lawyers will now be making the necessary arrangements for a judge to decide whether she should receive compensation.
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