Parents secure €100,000 for shock after baby’s death

THE parents of a baby girl born dead at Sligo General Hospital as a result of alleged delay in delivering her have secured €100,000 for nervous shock in settlement of their High Court action.

Because Emma Gilmartin was dead at birth on July 2, 2005, it was not open to her parents, Karen and Paul, to bring a claim for damages for mental distress under the Civil Liability Act, and the case was a straightforward claim by both parents for personal injuries due to nervous shock arising from Emma’s death, Dr John O’Mahony SC told Mr Justice John Quirke yesterday.

Mr Justice Quirke said he wanted to express his deep sympathy to the parents not just for their terrible loss due to the death of Emma but also because nothing was recoverable (for mental distress under the Civil Liberty Act).

Because of the way the law is, no part of the compensation is attributable to mental distress, he added.

The action was brought against the HSE by Karen and Paul Gilmartin, formerly of St Joseph’s Terrace, Sligo but now separated and living respectively in Carraroe and Drumcliffe, Co Sligo. No defence was filed and Dr O’Mahony told the judge yesterday the case had been settled.

Asked was there an admission of liability, counsel said there had been no reference to liability in the course of settlement.

Dr O’Mahony said the claim was that Emma was alive up to the end of labour and, had she been delivered sooner, she would have been born alive. His side was contending the delay in delivery was due to the hospital’s failure to properly monitor the baby’s heart rate.

Ms Gilmartin was admitted to Sligo General Hospital on July 2, 2005 after going into spontaneous labour. It was alleged the hospital had commenced a heart rate monitor but failed to recognise the CTG trace was abnormal from the start.

It was claimed proper monitoring would have resulted in a decision at 14.30 that Emma be delivered by Caesarean section. If Emma was delivered then or even any time up to 17.20, it was “more than likely” she would have been born alive, it was claimed.

It was alleged the hospital wrongly allowed the labour to proceed until a decision was made at 17.10 to effect delivery and Emma was ultimately born dead at 17.35. The parents claimed it was “entirely unacceptable” it took 25 minutes to perform a Kiwi ventouse delivery when, it was alleged, most competent obstetricians would have carried out the procedure within five minutes or so.

It was claimed the midwives were becoming concerned some time before the decision to effect delivery because they had asked a doctor to review the CTG trace a number of times. It was alleged the doctor made “a quite inappropriate” decision to let the epidural wear off and await descent of the baby.

The parents claimed Emma appeared normal at first after birth but they then noticed the midwives looked very worried and everything went “very quiet”.