Baynham v Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust
2014
QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION
United Kingdom
CORAM
- MR JUSTICE GOSS
Areas of Law
- Tort Law
- Civil Procedure
- Health Law
2014
QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Megan Baynham, born prematurely following a placental abruption, claims severe cerebral palsy due to hospital negligence in delaying her delivery. The hospital acknowledges a delay but disputes its effect. The court found no probable proof that the delay caused additional injury, thus dismissing the claim.
Judgment
MR JUSTICE GOSS:
Introduction
Megan Nicole Jane Baynham (‘Megan/the Claimant’) was born at 00.40 hours on 23 rd August 2000 at the New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton (‘the hospital’). Her birth was premature, at 28 weeks gestation, and she was delivered by an emergency caesarean section. She weighed 1.22 kg and was in a poor condition in consequence of her mother, Sarah Jane Baynham (then Smith, having since married) [‘mother’], having suffered a partial placental abruption (the premature separation of the placenta from the wall of the womb). She responded quickly to resuscitation. She was mechanically ventilated for 3 days and then on continuous positive airways pressure ventilation [‘CPAP’] for 39 days. On the third day of her life, 25 th August, she developed seizures; scans of her brain revealed a large parenchymal infarction on the right and intraventricular haemorrhage [‘IVH’] with ventricular dilatation on the left. Megan developed asymmetric cerebral palsy, learning difficulties and epilepsy. By her mother and litigation friend, she now claims damages for personal injury and consequential losses arising out of the circumstances of her birth, alleging there was negligence by those acting on behalf of the hospital in their treatment of her and her mother in delaying delivery by at least 40 minutes and that this delay caused significant additional damage to her brain, thereby resulting in a more severe form of cerebral palsy and greater cognitive impairment than would otherwise have been the case. The hospital admits that delivery was delayed by around 25 minutes due to fault in its systems but disputes that there was an additional period of some 15 minutes attributable to fault on the part of the examining Registrar, Dr Ekpo. However, it is the hospital’s case that none of the time differences had any impact on the outcome and that the IVH suffered by Megan was a reperfusion injury that was solely primed by the placental abruption, which injury, its extent and consequences were inevitably going to be sustained as a result of the abruption whether Megan was born at 00.00 hours or, as she was, at 00.40 hours or at some time in between. Although the case was listed for trial on both liability and quantum, during the course of the hearing it was agreed by both parties that the issue of liability should be tried first.
Background
This was Mrs Sarah Jane Baynham’s fourth pregnancy. She has two sons, Jack Stafford, who was born prematurel