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'Her life can improve': €12m settlement in high court action over Cork birth

EchoLive.ie, 19 Apr

Outside the Four Courts her mother Olivia Harte said her daughter, who

has been living at the Cope Foundation facility in Montenotte, will now

be able to return home.

'Her life can improve': €12m settlement in high court action over Cork

birth

Jane Harte and her mother Olivia Harte from Cork city after Jane

settled her action over her care after birth at a now closed private

maternity hospital in Cork city.

    

Ann O’Loughlin

A 27-year old woman with cerebral palsy who sued over the care she

received after her birth at a now closed private maternity hospital in

Cork city has settled her High Court action for €12 million.

Her mother after the High Court approved the settlement described it as

life changing for her daughter Jane Harte who cannot speak or walk and

has spastic quadriplegia.

Jane had taken the case over her care at City General Hospital,

Infirmary Road, Cork in 1995 where her mother Olivia Harte, who was

then 16 years of age was a patient.

Outside the Four Courts her mother Olivia Harte from Cork city said her

daughter who has been living at the Cope Foundation facility in

Montenotte, Cork city will now be able to return home.

Mum Olivia Harte from Cork City. Her daughter Jane has settled her case

over care received after her birth at the now closed City General

Hospital Infirmary Road Cork City. Photo: Collins Courts Mum Olivia

Harte from Cork City. Her daughter Jane has settled her case over care

received after her birth at the now closed City General Hospital

Infirmary Road Cork City. Photo: Collins Courts

“She is going to have a life with her family and siblings which she

always deserved and which was taken from us really.” Ms Harte added:

“This is life changing for all of us and especially Jane.

"Her life can improve from here on forward and she can return home.

"It will mean she can get physio and she will be able to swim which she

loves, It is going to change her life to the best of her ability she

will have a far better quality of life.”

She said it was only in the last couple of years she had begun to

investigate her daughter’s case and “Thank God, I did.”

She said as difficult the process was she was glad she stuck it out.

Background

The case was against retired consultant and gynaecologist Pallany

Pillay (88) also of Cork city who was the proprietor of City General

Hospital which closed in 2000. Mr Pillay was also a consultant at the

hospital and Jane’s mother, Olivia was his private patient.

Liability was contested in the case and the settlement is without an

admission of liability. It followed mediation talks between the

parties.

At the opening of the action, Jane’s Counsel Dr John O’Mahony SC

instructed by Callan Tansey solicitors told the court it was their case

that after she was born healthy, Baby Jane had significant difficulty

with her breathing and “went dramatically downhill”.

Counsel said when she was transferred to the Erinville Hospital at 17

hours old, she was “literally in extremis with severe septic shock” and

later meningitis.

Dr O’Mahony told the court that it was their case appropriate steps

should have been taken at City General Hospital and if given

antibiotics, Baby Jane would have recovered.

Counsel said it was their contention that there was “ample opportunity

to intervene when the baby required antibiotics, but “ it was left too

late when nothing could be done.”

Dr O’Mahony said the private hospital was high end and luxury with

hotel standard accommodation but he said "there was a lot left to be

desired in terms of service".

Jane, Counsel said is “profoundly, permanently and irreversibly

disabled” and has to use a wheelchair.

Counsel for Mr Pillay , Adrienne Egan SC told the court at the opening

of the case it was accepted that the baby developed meningitis but what

was at issue was when the relevant symptoms arose. Counsel said that

records from the closed hospital had been destroyed in 2015 and these

proceedings had been initiated three years ago.

Approving the settlement Mr Justice Paul Coffey said the litigation

risk in the case was too great and he was delighted the case had been

resolved.

In the proceedings it was claimed Baby Jane started to grunt after her

birth on October 8, 1995.

Despite showing persistent worsening respiratory distress the baby it

was claimed did not receive any antibiotics.

It was claimed this was despite her mother and other relatives who were

present at the hospital repeatedly expressing their serious concerns

for the baby’s well bring.

Baby Jane at 17 hours old was transferred to the neonatal until of the

then Erinville Hospital, Cork in her grandmother’s car and accompanied

by a midwife.

On the baby’s arrival at the Erinville, it was claimed she was close to

death.

It was claimed there was a delay in the treatment of the baby’s Group B

streptococcus early onset sepsis and meningitis. It was claimed that

had she been treated appropriately when she first exhibited respiratory

distress she would not have developed septic shock and meningitis.

The alleged delay in administering antibiotics it was claimed allegedly

caused the baby to develop septic shock and meningitis which caused her

brain damage.

The claims were denied.

Woman, 27, sues over care after her birth in Cork