The High Court recently considered Ms Larkin's claim for
post-traumatic stress following an alleged "near death
experience" in hospital in January 2008.1 The
plaintiff began to bleed internally after her baby was delivered by
caesarean section, and required a second operation to stop the
bleeding.
The plaintiff sued the HSE and the consultant gynaecologist for
alleged negligence and breach of duty. She claimed the defendants
failed to sufficiently check or recognise signs that she was
bleeding profusely and losing substantial amounts of blood, despite
her distress signals. She alleged that, by the time she
underwent an operation to stop the bleeding, she was in a parlous
state and had suffered massive blood loss and a near death
experience. At the date of the trial, the plaintiff alleged
that she had not recovered from the possibility that she might have
died.
The claims were denied by the defendants, who argued that the
plaintiff was treated in a timely and appropriate manner when
surgical complications were identified.
The Judge accepted that no bleed was present when the consultant
completed the caesarean section, and subsequently left the
hospital. As soon as he was called back, he took charge and
successfully performed the second operation to stop the
bleeding. On that basis, Mr Justice Cross said the
plaintiff's action against the consultant must fail.
However, he went on to award €25,000 against the HSE for what
he described as a needless "one hour delay" before the
second operation to stop the bleeding.
Footnote
1 Larkin v Aboud and The Health Service Executive, Cross J, February 2014
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