Mom whose baby diagnosed with cerebral palsy sues Mt Hope

The mother, Lena Francis and her husband, Fred, are holding the NCRHA accountable for their child’s predicament because doctors did not act promptly to delivere the baby via caesarian section.

Francis (Lena), in a lawsuit, stated that she became pregnant in 2009 and on October 25 of that year, she went to the Mount Hope Maternity Hospital to deliver what was medically listed as a normal baby.

In the lawsuit filed in the San Fernando High Court, Francis stated that shortly after admission, a nurse upon placing a monitor on her belly, said that she was checking the baby’s heart rate.

Sometime later that day, according to the mother, the nurse advised a doctor on the ward that the baby’s heart rate was too fast.

A doctor examined the mother and realised that the foetus was in distress. Francis was administed certain medication.

The lawsuit was filed by attorney Asaf Hosein who, together with attorney Dr Camanie Narayansingh-Chang, are arguing the case for the parents. The mother and father are contending that the attending doctor, upon observing that baby (Elijah) was in distress, ought to have carried out a Caesarean section immediately, especially in light of the fact that the mother’s water bag had burst almost six hours before.

Instead, according to the lawsuit, the doctor applied forceps and Francis delivered baby Elijah. However, the mother was discharged, but Elijah was kept in the hospital due to a medical condition that was described by a doctor to the parents, as a “slight focus on the right side of the brain”.

Francis stated in an affidavit that she had observed that her child’s forehead and between his eyes, were damaged and on the right side of the neck, there were torn tissues and ligaments.

There was also a lump on the top left side of Elijah’s skull and his left shoulder “went out of place”. The mother also stated in her lawsuit that there are blood clots in her child’s eyes when he is crying.

Elijah, she stated, is seven years old and has severe neurological disabilities. He suffers from cerebral palsy with accompanying overall developmental retardation, seizures and visual impairment. Francis describes her child as having no useful voluntary movement of either his arms or legs. Elijah cannot walk, talk, sit unattended or eat for himself.

Both mother and father are contending that the injuries their child sustained occurred at birth and the NCRHA’s doctors were negligent in the management of the mother’s pregnancy.

The family is seeking general and aggravated damages