Girl settles court action against Rotunda for €2.6m

An eight-year-old girl who has cerebral palsy and is severely brain damaged has settled her High Court action against the Rotunda Hospital for €2.6m.

Caoimhe Flood, her counsel told the High Court, falls into the most damaged category of persons and is spastic quadriplegic. The settlment was without admission of liability.

Two years ago the young girl accepted an interim settlement of €1.3m. Yesterday’s settlement of €2.6m towards the young girls’s future care needs is the final settlement in the case, bringing the total settlement in her case to €3.9m.

Approving the settlement Mr Justice Bernard Barton said on a personal level he was relieved for the Flood family and Caoimhe’s parents the litigation had come to an end and he told Mrs Flood she was a wonderful mother.

Caoimhe Flood, of The Rise, Kingswood Heights, Tallaght, Dublin had sued through her mother, Marlis Flood, the Rotunda Hospital over the management of her birth in 2006. The settlement was without admission of liability.

It was claimed that Mrs Flood had attended the hospital in February 2006 and tests were carried out because she had a four-day history of ante partum haermorrhage associated with abdominal pain. Mrs Flood was discharged and continued to attend for ante natal reviews and was an inpatient from March 30 to April 2, 2006, due to abdominal pain.

On April 3, 2006, she went back to the hospital for a scan and also complained of other matters.

It is alleged she did not have a scan and notwithstanding her symptoms was discharged home.

It was further alleged that the next day Mrs Flood returned to the hospital with increasing abdominal pain and an examination revealed she was dilated and the baby was born later that evening.

It was further claimed there was an alleged failure to heed and act upon Mrs Flood’s history of ante partum haemhorrage and abdominal pain for six days and that delivery of the baby was allegedly delayed when she ought to have been delivered.

All the claims were denied by the hospital.

Barrister Denis McCullough told the court Caoimhe’s parents were very anxious that case be finally settled and that they would not have to come back to court again.

He said Caoimhe’s case was an exteremly severe one and falls into the most damaged catgegory of persons.

He said the young girl cannot take anything by mouth and had to be fed through a tube in the first year of her life.