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Complications following caesarean section result in $167,500 compensation at mediation

This case involved a mother, in her late twenties, who experienced complications arising out of negligence following a caesarean section. Our client attended upon a Hospital for an elective caesarean section for her fourth pregnancy. She had had 3 previous caesarean sections. As this was her fourth caesarean section the risks of complications were noted as being high and the hospital was well aware of the associated risks having made note of it on several occasions.

Our client had the elective caesarean section performed on 27 August 2012 and comments were made by the hospital that there was blood in her urine, that she was experiencing pain in her abdomen. These symptoms were suggestive of a potential leak of her bladder.

This was in fact the case, her bladder had been perforated during the birthing process. It was not until 3 days later however that this injury was diagnosed despite the clear post-operative symptoms and the fact that the hospital was on notice, having acknowledged the high risks.

Following her recovery, feeling aggrieved and uncertain of her rights, she approached Gerard Malouf and Partners where a Senior Solicitor, with over 30 years’ experience in medical negligence took carriage of this matter. Our specialised medical negligence team, obtained expert medical opinions where it was established that the injuries of our client could have been easily avoided by a simple procedure. Our experts noted that during the caesarean section, noting the risks, the hospital should have conducted a procedure whereby water would run into a catheter, exposing any leaks in her bladder. Failure to perform this simple operation not only caused our client damage, but also fell below the appropriate standard of care for a hospital. Furthermore, a failure to diagnose her injuries promptly led to a delay in the repair of the bladder and the need for further surgery.

Equipped with this clear evidence of negligence we briefed an expert Barrister in this matter and began to enter into negotiations.

We managed to settle this hospital negligence matter for $167,500.00 after having organised a mediation. This was a pleasing result for our client and we hope that this settlement encourages hospitals, as well as surgeons, to ensure the level of care provided to patients is of a high standard to prevent easily avoidable incidents like this occurring in the future.

We are highly specialised and focussed lawyers with our firm being small enough to care intimately for our clients, but large enough to have the solid, financial, medical and expert resources our clients need to match the big insurers we fight every day.

For free over the phone advice or to take advantage of our free face to face consultation call our expert medical negligence team today on our free call number 1800 004 878.

About Us
Gerard Malouf & Partners have provided friendly, experienced legal advice to communities across Australia for over 35 years. Our Personal Injury Lawyers have taken on ten’s of thousands of cases and we are proud to have won billions of dollars for our clients.
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Meet the diverse and dynamic team of compensation lawyers and supporting staff that have made this all happen below. Our multi-lingual team can discuss your claims in Arabic, Assyrian, Turkish, Greek, Italian, French, Serbian, Croatian, Armenian, Mandarin, Hindi, Punjabi or Malayalam.
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Meet the diverse and dynamic team of compensation lawyers and supporting staff that have made this all happen below. Our multi-lingual team can discuss your claims in Arabic, Assyrian, Turkish, Greek, Italian, French, Serbian, Croatian, Armenian, Mandarin, Hindi, Punjabi or Malayalam.

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