€100k for woman who had baby after sterilisation
Mother of two Karen Hurley-Ahern, aged 41, was shocked to find herself pregnant because she had a blood clotting disorder and had decided not to have any more children because of potential risks. She later gave birth to a severely disabled baby boy, Samuel, who died nearly six months later.
She and her husband Garret Ahern sued consultant gynaecologist Dr Victor Moore — who carried out the sterilisation procedure in Tralee General Hospital, Co Kerry, in Feb 2001 — and the Southern Health Board, now the HSE.
They sought damages alleging a number of failures including negligence in how the operation was performed.
The defendants denied the claims and said the couple were warned of the risk of failure.
Yesterday, Mr Justice Sean Ryan awarded €100,000 to Ms Hurley- Ahern, of Assumpta Park, Newcastle West, Co Limerick, saying she had suffered to a significant extent as a result of the defendants’ negligence.
While Samuel’s severe disability was not a consequence of this negligence, the judge said Ms Hurley -Ahern had suffered in a number of ways, including mental distress on the death of her baby.
She also suffered worry about her pregnancy, a risk of blood clots, the pain of childbirth, distress at the discovery of Samuel’s condition and disruption to family life during his illness until his death, as well as distress afterwards, the judge said.
However, he made no award to her husband, saying that while he undoubtedly endured some of the detriments and distresses his wife suffered, he did not consider that the law permitted recovery of compensation in his case as proof was required that he suffered a defined psychiatric injury.
During the hearing last December, the court heard of the couple’s shock of not only finding out Karen was pregnant again but of nearly six months of trauma and upset when Samuel was born. He died as a result of complications from open-heart surgery.
Ms Hurley-Ahern told the court she had a disorder which causes thrombosis, particularly during pregnancy.
Following a miscarriage and two difficult pregnancies with two healthy children, the couple were advised by doctors that another pregnancy would be extremely harmful to Karen’s health.
She was also advised that her condition meant there was a greatly increased risk that another child would suffer from severe deformities and disabilities. They agreed Karen should get sterilised and a tubal ligation was carried out.
It was claimed that while “Filshie clips” were applied to her fallopian tubes, it was not done correctly and the tubes should have instead been cauterised.
The couple said they were not advised the procedure ran the risk of failure or that additional precautions should be taken to avoid pregnancy.
About 13 months later, Karen discovered she was pregnant. “I was in total shock; I could not believe it,” she said.
She and Garret were planning to get married that year and she had to face another difficult pregnancy as well as “walking up the aisle pregnant”.
When Samuel was born, he had to remain in hospital for the entirety of his short life as doctors tried to save him.
But, Ms Hurley-Ahern said, after months of watching him battling to survive, connected up to machines and tubes, they were eventually asked by doctors in Mar 2003, would they turn off the machine keeping him alive, and they agreed.
