Man left widowed after wife dies following birth of second child

Our client’s wife was admitted to hospital when she went into labour in September 2011 following a normal pregnancy with their second child.

Just a couple of hours after she was admitted, delivery of the baby was achieved with forceps. She then proceeded to deliver the placenta, following which she suffered a severe postpartum haemorrhage and the crash team were called to take her to theatre. At this stage it was noted that she’d already lost almost 2.5 litres of blood, half of the circulating blood volume.

A transfusion of at least eight units of blood was urgently required to stabilise her. However, she was only given one unit, leaving her hypovolemic and in a position where she had no oxygen carrying capacity. Tragically, she then suffered a cardiac arrest and attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful.

Our client instructed us on behalf of his late wife in January 2012 and we obtained medical evidence from a consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician and a consultant anaesthetist. The experts agreed that the care given to our client’s wife fell below acceptable standards of care and that, had the appropriate care been provided, she would’ve survived.

We represented our client at the inquest in December 2013 where the Coroner identified serious failings in his wife’s management and stated that her death was contributed to by neglect.

Following this, details of our client’s losses and expenses were collated and we instructed a care expert to comment on the loss of services our client’s wife would’ve provided to her family.

We issued court proceedings in September 2014 but after negotiations with the defendants, in June 2015, we were able to negotiate a settlement in the sum of £600,000 for our client.

Although no sum of money can undo the devastating loss felt by our client and his two young children, it will ensure that they’re provided for in the future.

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All information was correct at the time of publication.