A disabled girl, alleging medical negligence against two NHS trusts, has lost her claim in an interesting case which looks into treatments given to her mother during the girl’s birth.
Amy Jane Ludwig, the disabled girl, was represented by her mother, Della Louise Ludwig in court and took action against Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust and Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust because they did not identify a Group B Streptococcus infection in her mother when she gave birth.
Amy developed diplegic cerebral palsy, which affected her legs and her mobility and an MRI scan showed that she had brain damage which was responsible for the disability she was suffering from. She claimed that this was entirely due to the infection that her mother was carrying at the time of her birth. She said that there had been the loss of a high vaginal swab and also staff at the time had not identified and therefore treated the infection.
While, there may have been a duty of care owed by the trusts to Mrs Ludwig, the court ruled that it could not be established that the damage caused to Amy was as a direct result of the infection. It said that the probable cause could not be identified and therefore the claim had to fail.
Without knowing all the circumstances of the case it is difficult to give a fully informed opinion. However, does that not set the bar unrealistically high when considering medical negligence claims in general? It perhaps could not be fully established that the infection, or the failure to identify it at the time, was the certain cause of the brain damage, but surely it was a contributing factor. Your opinions would be most welcome.