Over the years, I have helped hundreds of families whose lives have been shattered by their baby suffering a brain injury at birth. With experience, I have learned to recognise mistakes in maternity care, and the types of injury that are caused by many...
Earlier this year, the government confirmed that in the 2018/2019 financial year, the NHS made 105 compensation settlements of over £1million to babies disabled for life by medical negligence. In the same year, Boyes Turner’s cerebral...
Measuring an unborn baby’s heart rate is a very good way of checking their health during labour and birth. A normal heart rate can reassure healthcare professionals that it is safe to continue labour if no other problems are present. On the other...
Are you confused by neonatal jaundice? If so, you are probably not alone. This is because neonatal jaundice is often described as a common condition which is usually harmless and resolves in a few days, but also as a potentially dangerous condition which can...
The NHS defence organisation, NHS Resolution, claims that its Early Notification Scheme offers support for families of babies who were born at full term but suffered hypoxic (lack of oxygen) brain injury from mistakes in maternity care. Promoted by NHS...
From the moment we agree to pursue a client’s medical negligence case, our focus is on obtaining an admission of liability. This acknowledgement of fault is of the utmost importance to our clients. It recognises that something outside of their control...
The government has confirmed that its former plans for maternity safety investigations to be carried out by the Health Service Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB), the new statutory successor to the HSIB, have been removed from the Health Service Safety...
It’s the festive season and for any child that has to mean TOYS! For parents, grandparents and anyone else involved in meeting the child’s ‘Santa’ expectations, filling a stocking isn’t always that simple. High hopes and...
Each baby’s birth is a journey of multiple stages from pregnancy through labour and delivery into their first few days of life. The safety of the birth process and the mother and baby’s health and wellbeing are often managed by a team of health...
Every year in England between 4,000 and 5,000 babies are born prematurely before 30 weeks’ gestation. Prematurity increases the risk of various serious conditions, including cerebral palsy. The risk of developing cerebral palsy is around 10% for babies...
When a child suffers a brain injury it takes specialist skills to understand and untangle the various ways in which the injury will affect their life. Their ability to think, perceive, process information, function and communicate may be impaired, affecting...
A difficult and detailed, but vitally important, part of our role is to predict and value the needs of an infant with cerebral palsy into adulthood and throughout their life. Like any child, their needs will change as they grow and develop, but for...
For many parents of children with special educational needs (SEN) the process of finding and obtaining a placement at the right school for their child can be confusing, frustrating and exhausting. It takes considerable time, paperwork, persistence and an...
Children love the school holidays but as all parents know, holidays need planning, particularly when the family includes a disabled child. So, with summer almost here, here are a few ‘staycation’ holiday opportunities for disabled children to...
When someone mentions birth injury or birth trauma, we may immediately think about injuries to the baby’s head and brain, or physical and/or psychological injury to the mother. Whilst these types of injury are more commonly talked about in the NHS and...
The parent’s dilemma: my child has cerebral palsy - do I cope or question? Living with severe disability can be stressful. It’s only natural that parents who have experienced a difficult birth or neonatal injury to their child often try to set...
Susan Brown has over twenty years' experience of working for people who have been injured as a result of medical negligence. We asked Susan to share her insight into some of the worries expressed by families who are considering claiming their...
We asked Boyes Turner partner, Ruth Meyer , about how she supports children with cerebral palsy andtheir families through her role in the Court of Protection team . Ruth qualified as a solicitor in 1990 and is also a qualified New York attorney....
When a baby is born with brain injury after suffering from lack of oxygen at birth , the severity of their injury (e.g. moderate to severe hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy or HIE) and their chances of survival will determine whether they must be treated...
A research study has recently been launched to find out more about the rising numbers of second stage caesarean sections in the UK which are complicated by impaction of the fetal head and in turn lead to injury to both mother and baby. What is the second...
As specialist serious injury solicitors, we know the many ways that life can be altered after a brain injury, not just for the injured person but for their family too. It is important both for the individual and their family that they can get out of the...
Much of the work we do here in the medical negligence team at Boyes Turner is aimed at securing compensation to meet all the individual needs of our disabled clients throughout their lives. While our role is to assist with the litigation process, we also...
Cerebral palsy specialist, Susan Brown , has been recognised by Legal 500 and Chambers Directory for her expertise in maximum severity claims for more than a decade. In this article we asked Susan about one of the most important concerns for a family...
The Lord Chancellor has now begun a review of the personal injury discount rate. This will inevitably lead to a significant reduction in compensation payments for severely injured victims of negligence. It follows on from the Civil Liability Act...
There is currently no cure for cerebral palsy . The injury to the brain which causes the condition, and its effects, are permanent. The functional impairments and disabilities which arise from the condition are managed by a range of treatments or...
Medical negligence partner, Richard Money-Kyrle, has been recognised by Legal 500 and Chambers Directory for his expertise in maximum severity claims for more than a decade. As a specialist in achieving high value awards for clients with cerebral palsy...
The aim of a claim for personal injury or clinical negligence is to put the injured person back in the position they were in before they sustained an injury. As experienced injury lawyers, we know that this is almost impossible to achieve in reality. ...
The latest progress report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ (RCOG) maternity quality improvement programme, Each Baby Counts , has revealed that in 2016, in the UK, 1,123 term babies were severely brain damaged at...
Moving abroad after your child suffers catastrophic injury from medical negligence in England or Wales shouldn't prevent you from making a claim for compensation . Serious injury claims should always be handled by solicitors with specialist...
In April 2018 I reported on the announcement by the former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Jeremy Hunt, that the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) would be extending its remit to investigate 1,000 maternity incidents per year....
The Parliamentary Joint Committee has reported on the draft Health Service Safety Investigations Bill , which sets out the government’s plans for an independent Health Service Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) to carry out ‘safe space’...
NHS Resolution, the special health authority originally known as the NHS Litigation Authority and now rebranded to " resolve claims against the NHS fairly, share learning for improvement and preserve resources for patient care" , has published its...
Boyes Turner’s cerebral palsy claims lawyers have secured millions of pounds in compensation for families caring for children with a permanent disability caused by negligent medical care. We are committed to using our nationally acclaimed expertise...
In a recent post Each Baby Counts report on anaesthetic care - Maternity safety depends on teamwork I commented on the latest report from the RCOG’s Each Baby Counts programme which reviewed the ways in which delays in anaesthetic care...
Following the publication in 2017 of the landmark report, Each Baby Counts , the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has now reported on the anaesthetic aspects of care given to the mothers of 49 of the babies who were originally...
Meconium can be both a sign and a cause of oxygen deprivation. In the absence of careful management during labour and delivery and immediately after birth, it can lead to brain injury, cerebral palsy and permanent disability. What is meconium? Meconium...
As the Parliamentary Joint Committee hears evidence on the Draft Health Service Safety Investigations Bill which will establish the Health Service Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) and empower it to investigate NHS patient safety incidents, the Association...
Mismanaged vaginal breech births, in which the baby’s position means that it is born bottom first or foot first instead of head first, have been found to give rise to a disproportionate number of successful, high value compensation claims. As the...
Following last year’s Ministry of Justice (MOJ) consultation on the Personal Injury Discount Rate and the MOJ’s proposed draft legislation to reform the way that the discount rate should be set in future, the Civil Liability...
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) extends its remit this month to investigate certain types of maternity incidents, including intrapartum stillbirth, early neonatal deaths, perinatal maternal deaths and severe brain injuries in...
Disability charity, Scope, has published its new policy report, The disability price tag, in which it identifies some of the ways in which life costs more for disabled people. The report calls on government and businesses to act fast to tackle the...
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published the results of its 2017 Survey of Women’s Experiences in Maternity Care. The results of the survey have been reported to demonstrate that of the 18,426 women who gave birth in February 2017 across 130...
The RCOG has now published its full Each Baby Counts report, following its analysis of over 700 cases of stillbirth, neonatal death and severe brain injury in term babies in 2015. The Each Baby Counts programme reflects the RCOG’s...
NHS Resolution has published the findings of a five-year review of cerebral palsy claims, Five Years of Cerebral Palsy Claims: A thematic review of NHS Resolution Data. The review looked at 50 maternity incidents which took place between 2012 and...
Following the outcome of the Personal Injury Discount Rate consultation, The Personal Injury Discount Rate: How Should It Be Set In Future the Ministry of Justice has invited comments on its proposed draft legislation before Parliament...
In the first few days after birth, before regular and adequate feeding is established, babies often need help with managing their blood glucose levels. Newborns with low birth-weights (below 2.5kg) or those born to diabetic mothers are at increased risk of...
The Ministry of Justice has published its response to the consultation, The Personal Injury Discount rate: How Should It Be Set In Future? The consultation was launched on 30 th March 2017, a month after the Lord Chancellor announced...
NHS Resolution, (formerly NHSLA), has presented its Annual Report and Accounts for 2016 -2017 to Parliament. The annual report is the first following the expansion of its remit and change of strategic focus and argues NHS Resolution’s case...
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM), the midwifery trade union, have confirmed that they are bringing to an end their 12-year-long campaign to promote “normal” births. In a statement dated 14 th August, the RCM confirmed that following its...
NHS Resolution, the newly rebranded NHS Litigation Authority, has issued a leaflet for healthcare practitioners about the importance of saying sorry when things go wrong. In an open demonstration of NHS Resolution’s new focus on upstream...
