€300,000 for poor maternity care

THE Balearic Islands’ Health Service, Ib-Salut, has been ordered 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 at 39 weeks’ pregnant because a lack of amniotic fluid had been detected. The foetus had not been affected and the pregnancy had been without incident. It was decided that the birth would be induced and she 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.But the bleeding 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 weak heartbeat so a Caesarean was carried out immediately.

The girl was born 24 minutes later but had suffered a lack of oxygen. She required CPR and starting breathing 15 minutes later. These complications caused severe brain damage. The court ruled that if more tests had been done the first time the mother had been bleeding, the suffocation would have been noticed and the Caesarean performed sooner. Therefore, the insurance company for Ib-Salut will have to pay the company for Ib-ay €300.000 in compensation.