Woman to receive compensation for poor medical care

THE Balearic Islands’ Health Service, Ib-Salut, has been sentenced to pay compensation to a woman for the poor medical care she received during childbirth in Manacor.

The events took place in 2006, when the woman, 23 at the time, went to the hospital 39 weeks pregnant because a lack of amniotic fluid had been detected. The foetus had not been harmed by this and the pregnancy had been without incident. It was decided that the birth would be induced and the woman was admitted on March 4 and monitored, with results showing everything was normal.

She was taken to a ward, but in the early hours of March 5 she was bleeding heavily and taken to the delivery room. However, the bleeding had stopped, the foetus had a heartbeat and she was returned to the ward. An hour later, she was bleeding again and the foetus had a seriously low heartbeat so a Caesarean was carried out immediately. The girl was born 24 minutes later and had sustained acute suffocation. She required CPR and starting breathing 15 minutes later. These complications caused severe mental damage. 

The court considers that if more tests had been carried out the first time the mother was bleeding, the suffocation would have been noticed and the Caesarean would have been done sooner.

Therefore, the insurance company for Ib-Salut will have to pay €300,000 in compensation.