Obstetrician must defend negligence claim 27 years after birth
Statute of limitations has passed, but the negligence claim should go ahead because the mother only realised the doctor might be liable three years ago, judge finds.
A retired obstetrician will have to defend a negligence claim over a breech birth in 1996, after a court found his patient was not aware she could sue him until a chance encounter with a stranger two years ago.
Three weeks before her son was born, an ultrasound was taken showing that he was presenting as a footling breech.
No abnormality was detected but his estimated fetal weight — at 3888g — was above the 95th percentile.
At this point, the obstetrician allegedly failed to arrange an elective C-section or inform the mother that a footling breech carried with it risks of injury to the baby if born vaginally.
