She was left with permanent irregular bowel movements and faecal urge incontinence and mental health issues.
£370,000 to a 30-year-old Woman After She Suffered a Rectal Tear During Labour Which Was Not Identified and Repaired for Two Days
The claimant (C), female, was 25 when her labour was induced as she was suffering from a dangerous condition known as pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure and protein levels in pregnancy) at the date of the accident. The delivery had to be helped along with forceps and three pulls had to be performed with the forceps to achieve delivery.
Following three traction pulls and an episiotomy the vaginal delivery was completed. An episiotomy repair was performed under local anaesthetic. Unfortunately, a serious injury was caused to C which was not diagnosed until two days after she had delivered her baby. A 4th degree tear (the most severe grade of tear) and a rectovaginal fistula (a hole between rectum and vaginal wall) were identified.
C had to undergo urgent surgery (called a defunctioning loop ileostomy) and was left with a stoma bag for a while, so her injuries could heal, but this was reversed at a later date.
The claim alleged that a Caesarean section should have been offered as the baby’s shoulders were too big to safely be delivered normally and one shoulder had got stuck above the pubic bone. In addition, there was failure to examine and detect the injury straight after delivery. Had the injury been identified straight away, there could have been an immediate and complete repair. If this had been done, C would have avoided having to temporarily live with a stoma and undergo later reversal surgery.
C was greatly upset by the stoma and suffered a hernia at the stoma surgical site on her abdomen which had to be repaired. Her bowels were affected and she veered between constipation and loose stools (5-6 x per day), with extreme urgency to get to the toilet.
C had held down a full-time job for 12 years at the time of settlement but felt very stressed by the long commute to and from work and also felt awkward at work, owing to her ongoing issues with continence. She was also unable to resume a normal sexual relationship. C wished to have another child but was scared about doing so and would require a lot of support to assist her in coping with her fear.
The breakdown of the settlement was estimated at £55,000 for ‘General Damages’ (which relate to pain and suffering), future treatment costs £100,000, future counselling costs of £13,850, future hernia repair costs £3,200 and future loss of earnings of £74,623. Past losses were also claimed and estimated past loss of earnings £24,854, Care and assistance costs of £75,000, private caesarean section costs £8,500 and other miscellaneous around £14,000.