HSE makes €105k settlement offer after baby died within hours of birth

The HSE has made a settlement offer of €105,000 to a young woman whose baby boy died in hospital hours after he was born.

Mr Justice Michael Hanna expressed his sympathy at the outset of the case at the High Court in Cork yesterday as he approved the settlement offer to Ann Gamble of Baile Ard, Fermoy, Co Cork, on the loss of her baby, Charlie Gamble.

Dr John O’Mahony, senior counsel for the plaintiff, said the baby was born on August 30, 2013, but died on that same day at Cork University Maternity Hospital.

“Charlie lived for a short few hours and unfortunately died,” Dr O’Mahony said.

The senior counsel said in his opening of the case that the HSE had informed the plaintiff’s solicitor, John Brooks, that the case would have been vigorously defended. He said a vigorous stance was taken by the health authority at an inquest.

However, the plaintiff obtained reports from what Dr O’Mahony described as two eminent experts in the field who both stated that if the baby had been delivered the previous day, the indications were that he would have survived.

“He would have been born alive and gone on to have grown up in the ordinary way,” Dr O’Mahony said.

Ann Gamble and her husband Charles Gamble have two daughters, one born before the birth at the centre of yesterday’s case.

Dr O’Mahony submitted yesterday: “Liability would have been contested but ultimately the plaintiff would have succeeded eventually, albeit after a vigorous fight.”

Mr Justice Hanna approved a settlement offer of €105,000 from the HSE to the plaintiff for what was described as nervous shock following the death of the infant.

Dr O’Mahony said Mrs Gamble experienced guilt and felt she should have protested more over the last 24 hours before the birth.

Mr Justice Hanna said: “She has nothing to remonstrate herself for.”

The judge said to Mrs Gamble: “I am very sorry for your loss. If this matter proceeded to trial these are immensely difficult cases.

“They are gruelling and for all the best reasons in the world they don’t always turn out well.

“This would have been a complex and difficult case. I think the Gambles have been extremely well advised. It seems to be a just and fair and wise settlement. I wish the family well.”