Oliver, now 13

Oliver suffered catastrophic brain damage as a newborn because he was discharged from hospital too soon after his birth, meaning an underlying condition wasn’t diagnosed until it was too late. Midwives failed to recognise he wasn’t feeding properly, and when his blood sugars fell to a dangerous level prompt treatment was not provided. Eddie Jones, a solicitor at JMW specialising in brain injuries in young children, helped Oliver’s family to challenge the mistakes that were made and secure compensation to cover the lifelong specialist care he requires.

No feeding advice given

Oliver was his mum Sarah’s first baby and her pregnancy and was, on the whole, uneventful. Sarah attended all the routine midwife appointments and scans and at one such appointment she enquired about antenatal classes. Antenatal classes are usually provided to mothers-to-be by the NHS to help them to prepare for the birth, learn the basic feeding requirements of a newborn baby and other things they need to be aware of when caring for their baby at home. However Sarah was informed that due to staff shortages no antenatal classes were being provided in her area. As a result, Sarah did not receive any support or information about the feeding patterns of a baby before Oliver was born.

When Oliver was born, he was perfectly healthy and he and Sarah were taken to the post-natal ward. The ward was very busy and the midwives on duty spent very little time with Sarah showing her how to breastfeed Oliver. Oliver did not seem particularly interested in feeding and Sarah could not latch him on effectively.

Sarah felt that Oliver barely fed at all during the night and was not waking for feeds. As Sarah was unaware how long it could safely be left between feeds, and the midwives were not monitoring the situation appropriately, by the time mother and baby were discharged at 12 noon the following day, it had been seven hours since Oliver’s last feed. Sarah didn’t realise that this was not normal and that Oliver should wake, or be woken, for a feed every two to six hours.

As they left Sarah was not given an infant feeding pack as she ought to have been and it was incorrectly recorded in the medical notes that Oliver was being bottle rather than breast fed. No information was given to Sarah about who to contact if she had concerns about feeding or anything else.

Ambulance

Once at home Oliver remained uninterested in feeding and did not stay at the breast long enough to take a feed. The hospital had sent information about his discharge to the wrong community midwife team and the family was not visited by a midwife all that afternoon and the majority of the following day. It was only after Oliver’s father Michael contacted the health centre when no midwife had been by late afternoon that someone was sent out to check on Oliver. When the midwife arrived, she had no knowledge of Sarah or Oliver and did not have their notes. However the midwife immediately recognised that Oliver was unwell and called an ambulance.

When the paramedics arrived, they tested Oliver’s blood sugars and found them to be very low (hypoglycaemic). They tried to give him some medicine to treat this and took him to hospital where this was continue. Hospital staff also gave him bottle feeds and his blood sugars rose to a normal level. However by then it was far too late to prevent Oliver from suffering severe brain damage.

JMW’s investigation

Sarah and Michael found JMW online and found that we specialise in cases involving newborn babies who have suffered brain damage due to hospital errors. Their case was taken on by Eddie Jones, who launched an investigation into the care provided, on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis.

Using his specialist expertise, and by instructing leading independent medical experts to prepare reports, Eddie was able to prove that there had been several areas of negligence that had caused Oliver’s brain damage. This included not providing feeding advice to Sarah, discharging Oliver before breast feeding had been safely established and not providing follow-up advice about who to contact with any concerns.

Case won against hospital

Due to the strong case Eddie built against the hospital agreed that it should compensate Oliver so that his severe disabilities could be catered for. This included money to establish specialist carers in his home and a property for him to live in with his family that had been adapted to his needs. The compensation awarded totalled £14 million over Oliver’s lifetime and will give Sarah and Michael peace of mind that Oliver will have financial security given he will not be able to work for a living.