A mother has secured €89,250 and costs in settlement of her High Court action against two obstetricians over the management of a pregnancy which ended in her daughter being stillborn.
Monica Hayes, Ovens, Co Cork, who has three other children, had sued obstetricians David Corr and John Waterstone for negligence over the "horrific and shocking" experience involving the stillbirth of her daughter, Aisling, at the Bon Secours Hospital, Cork, on May 19th, 2002.
Liability was conceded by the obstetricians and separate proceedings against Bon Secours Health System Ltd were discontinued.
Ms Hayes had claimed the doctors failed to carry out a Caesarean section and failed to provide proper regular foetal monitoring.
She said she was a patient of Dr Corr and, at 34 weeks into the pregnancy, underwent an ultra-sound scan which showed the foetus was small for its dates. Two weeks later, she was admitted to hospital after she reported reduced foetal movements.
This, she claimed, should have given rise to a significant cause for concern. She claimed the baby should have been delivered at that stage by C-section, or, alternatively, a strict regime of monitoring put in place.
On April 26th, in her 37th week, she was allowed to return home, a decision she alleged would only have been appropriate if she had been closely monitored, which she had not been.
She was left unmonitored for a further eight days, until May 4th, when she was readmitted with a history of reduced foetal movements, but was again allowed to return home. On May 17th, at 40 weeks, she was again admitted to hospital complaining of passing blood. She was allowed to go home again, this time with the permission of Dr Waterstone, who was on duty that day.
The following day, she reattended the hospital for further monitoring and was again allowed to return home by Dr Waterstone. She claimed this decision was inappropriate given the high-risk nature of the pregnancy. On May 19th, she was again readmitted when she was induced. Her baby was stillborn.
She claimed the trauma caused to her was as a result of the negligence and breach of duty by the doctors. She further complained that Dr Corr failed to communicate her obstetric history or properly flag her notes so that problems associated with her pregnancy would be highlighted to any other obstetrician or member of hospital staff.
She claimed Dr Waterstone failed to liaise with Dr Corr adequately, properly, or at all.
Ms Hayes said she suffered "a horrific and shocking experience" which was worsened by the failure of Dr Corr to give "a full and frank account as to what had gone wrong" and to deal with her and her husband in a courteous manner. As a result, she suffered an abnormal grief reaction and had to receive counselling.
Oonagh McCrann SC, for Ms Hayes, said the other children, as claimants, were included in the overall settlement sum which had been lodged in court by the defendants. She asked that all the money be paid to Ms Hayes to invest for her children or to spend how she may see fit.
Mr Justice Michael Peart said that given the "awful" circumstances in which the claim arose and given the undeveloped relationship between the siblings and Aisling, he had no difficulty at all that the entire sum should be paid to Ms Hayes. He would leave it to her to do what she wanted with it in relation to the children. He also awarded costs against the two doctors as the action against the hospital had been discontinued.