Eva’, six-years-old

Eva was very severely brain damaged during her birth. She is unable to move any of her limbs, has to be fed by a tube and requires medical support with breathing. Due to the severity of her disabilities Eva has a greatly reduced life expectancy. 

Eva’s brain damage was caused by failures in maternity care during the induction of her mother’s labour, and a medical negligence case was launched on her behalf by Melissa Gardner, a partner at JMW specialising in brain injuries at JMW.

Absolutely nothing could make up for the suffering Eva has endured but the £8.3 million compensation settlement Melissa secured for her has at least ensured she has the specialist care and equipment she requires

Drip and CTG errors 

An induction of labour for Eva’s mother Sarah when she went slightly overdue. However before she could attend the appointment at hospital her waters broke. Sarah attended hospital and a decision was made to start her on the first stage of the induction process the following morning to speed things along.

As progress with Sarah’s labour was slow, doctors advised that they needed to step things up and Sarah was started on a Syntocinon drip that evening. A CTG trace was set up on Sarah’s abdomen to monitor Eva’s heart rate during the induction process. 

Throughout the course of the evening there were worrying signs of a problem with Eva’s heart rate that showed she was becoming distressed. However the midwives who were attending to Sarah did not realise there was a problem and did not call for a doctor to review Eva’s heart rate. 

Emergency C-section

In the early hours of the following morning a midwife examined Sarah and found that she was 8cm dilated. Shortly after the hear rate monitor showed that Eva’s heart rate was falling to a low level at regular intervals, and this was often happening at the same time as the frequent contractions Sarah was having due to the Syntocinon drip. At this point, the drip should have been stopped to prevent the high risk of Eva’s brain being damaged a lack of oxygen due to the high frequency of Sarah’s contractions. A doctor should also have been called but the midwives did neither. 

It was about two hours later that the midwives recognised there was a problem and asked a doctor to attend. The doctor tried to deliver Eva using forceps but couldn’t get her out. It was decided that Sarah required an emergency C-section and it was only at this point that the Syntocinon drip was turned off. 

Eva was born in a very poor condition and had to be resuscitated. Sadly mistakes were also made with Eva’s resuscitation and doctors did not first make sure her airways were clear to receive the oxygen she was being given. As a result it took 45 minutes to restart her heart and get her breathing which caused the brain damage to be more severe. 

JMW’s investigation

At first Eva’s family were in complete shock and tried their best to cope day-to-day with Eva’s complex needs and health concerns. When the dust settled a little, they began to realise that something must have gone badly wrong with Eva’s delivery for her to have been born so severely injured. They contacted JMW for advice and we took on Eva’s case.

Sarah and her partner’s recollection of what happened at the hospital was extremely useful to Eva’s case but we also needed to gather expert medical evidence that the care had been negligent.

We called upon leading expert midwives, obstetricians, and neonatologists to examine the event and prepare reports with their opinion. The experts agreed that competent midwives and doctors should have recognised the signs of distress with Eva’s heart rate and turned off the Syntocinon drip to allow her oxygen supply to recover. They also agreed that it was unacceptable for the resuscitation to have been so poor and for basic mistakes to be made in such a critical situation. 

Cerebral palsy compensation awarded

JMW’s Melissa Gardner built a strong case against the hospital for the appalling mistakes that were made which resulted in it making a full admission of negligence and agreeing to pay for Eva’s lifelong specialist care and therapies, and an adapted house suitable for her needs. 

Melissa then negotiated a compensation settlement that amounted to £8.3 million over Eva’s lifetime, which tragically will be much shorter than it would have been but for the severity of her brain damage. 

Melissa Gardner, a partner specialising in cerebral palsy cases at JMW, who acted for Eva, commented: “This is an extremely sad case as the severity of Eva’s brain damage means that her quality of life is very limited, even though she receives exceptional care from her parents and grandparents who are devoted to her. The compensation secured will ensure she has the best possible round the clock care, along with the necessary space and equipment, and that will give her family some comfort.”