Psychological birth injury compensation for baby identification errors

It is an almost unimaginably horrific and surreal scenario. Two women have just been through the joyful and painful process of giving birth, they each have a beautiful new child, but basic administrative failures lead to the babies being mixed up. It is a fortunately rare, though not unheard of situation, and is one that can certainly lead to payouts of psychological birth injury compensation.

A recent and notable case of baby swap malpractice
And there certainly is precedent for such payouts of psychological birth injury compensation. One recent example of the manifold traumas caused by such catastrophic mix-ups occurred in the Czech Republic last year.

The accidental swap only came to light when the father of one of the children became suspicious after feeling the child he and his wife had taken home from the hospital did not resemble him.

Eventually he ordered a DNA test, which proved a negative match. Clearly distraught, his wife then ordered a maternity test, this also proved negative, forcing the southeast Prague hospital to investigate the matter.

The official hospital view
Speaking at the time, a hospital spokesperson commented, "We can confirm that there was a most unfortunate, isolated incident in which two babies were mistakenly given to the wrong mothers for a brief time.

"Although every baby has an identification band, it is apparent that these were not checked properly with the result that babies were not given to their own mothers and one child was fed once.

"This is an extraordinarily and most unfortunate incident, which we deeply regret. We have been very frank and candid with the families and are continuing our investigation of, and a response to, a complaint.

"This incident is the subject of appropriate action with the staff involved. Both mothers have had an apology and a full explanation."

Since the revelation of the mix-up both sets of parents involved, both of who had developed strong relationships with the children they believed theirs, have refused offers of compensation made by the hospital. It is understood that, instead, they have enlisted the help of clinical negligence lawyers to represent their claims.

Other recent international examples
Other recent examples of swaps occurred in both China and Saudi Arabia. In the Chinese case, the mistake was discovered after a matter of hours, but only once the child of a healthy parent had been breastfed by a syphilitic mother, while in the Saudi Arabian case, the mistake was only discovered after four years.

In both these cases, all parents involved were deeply traumatized by their ordeals and sought to claim compensation from the relevant authorities.

Solicitors Regulation Authority governed clinical negligence specialists
Birth injury compensation claims are among the most sensitive and important a solicitor is ever likely to represent, which is why we have specialists on our panel firms whose expertise in this kind of representation is second to none.

All are governed by the Law Society standards of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and all seek to keep costs and fees and the lowest level possible. Furthermore, we work to secure every claimant the 100% compensation they deserve.

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