Obstetrics
As a result of an inadequately managed labour or delivery, a
baby can be catastrophically injured or develop cerebral palsy.
Claims are sometimes made for the failure of investigations
during the pregnancy. In these cases, the parents are not advised
of disabilities nor offered the opportunity to terminate the
pregnancy.
These claims may be against doctors or hospitals.
Medical negligence / malpractice claims in obstetrics
include:
- brain damage to a baby caused by allowing the labour to
continue when there were signs indicating a need for urgent
caesarean section delivery
- brain damage caused to a baby by forceps delivery
- brain damage to a baby caused by the failure to recognise a
high risk pregnancy
- death of a baby because of failure to treat the mother and baby
for Group B Strep
- death of a baby by Keillands Forceps rotation
- Erbs palsy
- injury to the mother by incorrect suturing of an
episiotomy
- injury to the mother by failure to recognise the extent of a
vaginal tear
- injury to the mother by failure to manage her pre-eclampsia
after delivery, resulting in seizures and kidney failure
- failure to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy
- failure to properly insert implanon implant, and
- failure to detect abnormalities in the foetus by 18-20 week
ultrasound or chromosome tests.
Summary of obstetrics cases
FAQ about Obstetrics
How do I make a
claim?
If you think you have a medical negligence claim, contact the
Maurice Blackburn Medical Negligence team. We will take a statement
from you about what has occurred and then provide you with a
preliminary assessment. If we believe you should proceed further
with your claim, we will then carry out an investigation of your
case. An investigation will involve obtaining your medical records
and reports from your treating doctors, if appropriate, then
obtaining an independent medical expert's opinion.
How much will it
cost?
In medical negligence cases that we believe have merit, we will
conduct the investigation on a 'no-win, no-charge' basis. This
means you will only be charged profit costs in the event you
receive an award of damages and no profit costs will be charged if
the claim is not pursued after being investigated.
If proceedings are issued after investigating the claim and the
claim is successful, you will be charged for the costs of the
investigation and the legal work performed after issuing
proceedings. This will be a charge on the appropriate Court Scale,
and you will be given more information about this at the time when
the decision is made to issue proceedings. No costs are charged
unless you receive a settlement or award of compensation.
However, in medical negligence cases, we require you to pay for
the costs of the investigations, such as the fees charged by
doctors for providing us with medical reports or by hospitals for
providing us with medical records. We have to obtain these reports
and records before we can advise you whether you are likely to be
successful with your medical negligence case.
If, after carrying out the investigation, we believe that you
should proceed with a claim, then we can offer you various remedies
for obtaining compensation. If the medical treatment has resulted
in an unexpected death, then we may recommend that a report be made
to the Coroner's Court. Sometimes we also advise that a report
should be made to the Health Care Complaints Commission of New
South Wales, the Health Services Commissioner of Victoria or the
Health Rights Commission of Queensland.
How long do I have to make a
claim?
There are time limits for making a compensation claim. The time
limits and pre-litigation requirements vary between States and
Territories;
Australian Capital Territory
In the ACT pre-court procedures require a claimant to notify a
potential defendant of a possible claim within the earlier
of nine months of the incident or appearance of symptoms
or four months of instructing a lawyer regarding a possible
claim and the defendant being identified. Generally, a
person has three years from the time of the injury occuring or if
the injury is a disease or disorder three years before the day you
first knew that you suffered an injury that is a disease or
disorder and that the injury is related to someone else's act or
omissions, to bring a claim. If they are a child, there
is provision to extend the time to bring a claim if it involves a
disease or disorder. If Court proceedings are not
commenced within within the relevant time period you may be
prevented from ever bringing a claim. Legal advice is
therefore essential.
Victoria
In Victoria an adult has three years from the time of
injury or medical negligence was (discoverable) to issue
proceedings. Children have six years from the time of injury
or medical negligence was discoverable to ssue proceedings. The
concept of (discoverability) is yet to be fully defined by the
Courts and accordingly it is prudent to be conservative when
judging the date of discoverability to have occurred, for example
where the negligent treatment involves an injury as a result of
surgery undertaken in a negligent fashion, a conservative
assessment as to the date of injury would be the date the surgery
was undertaken, even where the negligence was not discovered by the
Claimant until some time thereafter. There may be circumstances
where you can apply to Court for an extension of time past these
time limits. The position will vary from case-to-case and you
should obtain legal advice about the time limits in your case.