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  • Spina Bifida Negligence Claims

Spina Bifida Negligence Claims

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If your child has been born with spina bifida, our medical negligence solicitors understand that you’ll be concerned about their future. We may be able to help you claim compensation cover your child’s medical and care needs and give them the best possible quality of life for the future.

Spina bifida is a birth defect affecting a baby’s spine that can cause weakness or paralysis in the legs along with other symptoms such as incontinence. It can sometimes be detected during the mid-pregnancy anomaly scan 18-21 weeks into a pregnancy.

If your baby has unexpectedly been born with spina bifida, it may be a sign that more could have been done by medical staff to identify this during your pregnancy. Sometimes further complications can occur as a result of spina bifida and you may have concerns that they were not treated properly.

We may be able to help you claim compensation if staff:

  • Failed to detect your child’s spina bifida in antenatal checks
  • Failed to diagnose your child’s spina bifida at or around the time of delivery
  • Failed to diagnose and treat fluid on the brain (hydrocephalus), a possible complication of spina bifida
  • Failed to manage complications arising from surgery for spina bifida or the management of a shunt to drain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) fluid.

We’ll help you get to the bottom of what caused your child’s condition with a thorough investigation into the care you and your child have received. If we find evidence of medical negligence, we’ll fight to get you the compensation, explanation, and apology you deserve.

Compensation can pay for a range of therapies and adaptive equipment to help your child get the most out of life. Our client liaison managers will help you access the very best support both during and after your claim.

If you’ve had to stop work to care for your child, a compensation claim could also replace any lost income or help you hire a professional carer.

Our team of specialist medical negligence solicitors have a wealth of experience with spina bifida claims and have helped many families in your situation. We’re proud to be on the legal panel of Shine, the UK’s spina bifida and hydrocephalus charity. That means we’re one of their recommended law firms for spina bifida and hydrocephalus claims.

We understand what you’re going through and have the experience, connections, and resources to help. We know that you don’t need any more worries at the moment, and can offer a No Win No Fee agreement so there’s no financial risk to you* when starting a claim.

Contact us today for a free initial consultation to learn more about making a spina bifida compensation claim.

Help with rehabilitation
Financial advice from our Asset Management team
No Win No Fee*
Experience with complex, high value spina bifida claims

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guy-forster
Guy Forster Partner Meet the team

Spina Bifida Claims - More Information

After you’ve contacted us, we’ll set up a free initial consultation to discuss your case and whether you have a legal claim. We’ll discuss what funding options are available to you to pay for your claim, including No Win No Fee agreements*.

We’ll then get in touch with those responsible for your negligent treatment at an early stage to see if they accept the blame. If they accept responsibility, we’ll try to secure interim compensation payments which can fund private medical care and ongoing expenses, before your claim fully settles. Any interim payments will be taken out of your final compensation award.

Our experts will look into your case in detail, gathering evidence from independent medical professionals. These experts evaluate what care you should have received and can determine any future implications to your health. They’ll also advise us on the care you’ll need in the future.

We’ll always try and negotiate claims out of court, keeping the claim process as short as we can. However, if your opponent doesn’t accept responsibility or doesn’t agree with the amount of compensation we feel you need, we’ll start court proceedings.

Even when trial dates have been set, claims are still often settled before reaching court. If your claim does need to go to court, we’ll be there to help you every step of the way, talking you through what will happen so you feel as comfortable as possible.

If you weren’t told about your child’s condition while pregnant, you have three years from the day they were born to make a compensation claim.

If the claim relates to errors in the child’s care after they were born, then the 3 year time limit will not begin until they reach 18 years old. If they do not have mental capacity to make decisions about making a claim then there's no time limit.

However, it’s important to get in contact with us as soon as possible so that we can advise you about the applicable time limits and we can start our investigation into your case.

If you have questions or concerns, please call us for free initial advice on 0800 121 6567.

Many of our cases are funded with a No Win No Fee agreement. This means that there’s no financial risk* to you when making a compensation claim.

At the start of your case we’ll discuss funding options with you, advising you which we think is most suitable. If you have legal expenses insurance (LEI) or are covered by a trade union policy, these may be best for you. Legal expenses insurance is included in many household insurance policies, so it’s always worth checking whether you’re already covered.

If we think you’re best supported by a No Win No Fee agreement, we’ll explain the process clearly. This involves setting up an insurance policy that will protect you, at no cost to you. You’ll only have to pay anything when your claim is successful – your opponent will pay most of our fees.

Please visit our No Win No Fee page for more information on how it works.

Because we’re a full-service law firm, we also have a number of other in-house teams with specialist knowledge in areas such as rehabilitation, Wills and asset management.

Rehabilitation

We see rehabilitation as key and will make sure that you can access the care and support services you need to lead the best life possible. Our support and rehabilitation coordinators can provide support and information to you and your family, helping you with many of the other problems you may face, such as employment and benefit issues.

Public Law & Human Rights

Our Public Law & Human Rights department can offer advice on Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014. The Act made sweeping reforms to child welfare legislation, affecting young people with special education needs under the age of 25. It replaced statements of special educational needs and learning difficulty assessments with a combined Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC plan).

Please follow this link for more information on the Children and Families Act, along with factsheets and template letters.

Asset Management

Our asset management team can provide advice on how your compensation could be best invested. We also have Court of Protection lawyers who can set up personal injury trusts and make sure you have access to the benefits you’re entitled to.

As the largest medical negligence department in the country, our solicitors are highly rated by independent legal guides.

We have years of experience in securing compensation for those who’ve suffered as a consequence of medical errors. Our solicitors are aware that every claim is different and we make sure that we understand the care and support you need.

Getting an apology and explanation for what’s happened can be just as important as the compensation award. We’ll take the necessary steps to help you make a complaint and will campaign to ensure systems are put in place to ensure the same thing doesn’t happen to somebody else.

Meet our spina bifida claims solicitors

mental health worker chatting with client

They were always there to answer my questions and queries when I was at my most vulnerable and they persevered to obtain the best possible result."

Lisa, client

Case Study – Leo’s Story

Living With Lipomyelomeningocele Our client Leo as newborn baby

Leo was born with one of the most severe forms of spina bifida, lipomyelomeningocele. This is where a fatty lump forms on the spinal cord and can cause weakness and numbness in the legs, and problems with the bladder and bowel.

Leo’s mum Faye had been to all her routine scans and checks during pregnancy and was told everything was fine. So the diagnoses after Leo was born came as a total shock to Faye and father Marc.

Leo’s parents contacted our medical negligence solicitors to investigate whether staff should have detected the spina bifida earlier. We were able to negotiate a compensation settlement for Leo and his family from the Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The compensation has helped pay for mobility devices and treatments to help Leo manage his symptoms and will continue to support Leo as he grows up.

“We have shown him videos of Paralympians to prove that there are so many different people in the world with many different disabilities, and the main thing in life is not to let it hold you back from your dreams and what you want to achieve. We are devoted to him and are determined to make sure he has the best life possible.” - Faye, Leo's mum

“Leo hasn’t had the easiest of starts to life, and he’s had to come to terms with what his spina bifida means for his future. We hope that this settlement will make life a little easier for Leo and his family by helping to fund his care, therapy and equipment needs.” - Guy Forster, Partner

Read More Client Stories

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Spina Bifida?

Spina bifida is a birth defect where a baby’s spine and spinal cord don’t develop properly in the first few weeks of growth in the womb. It affects roughly six babies in every 10,000.

Doctor’s don’t know exactly what causes spina bifida. However, certain factors can increase the risk of the condition, including a lack of folic acid during pregnancy, a family history of spina bifida, and certain medicines.

There are different types of spina bifida of varying severities. The most severe is myelomeningocele, where there is a gap in the baby’s spine through which the spinal cord pushes out. The spine can be closed by surgery, but damage to the nervous system will usually still happen.

Symptoms of spina bifida can include:

  • Weakness, loss of sensation, or paralysis in the legs
  • Bowel or urinary incontinence
  • Build-up of fluid on the brain (hydrocephalus) and associated brain damage.

What If My Doctor Failed To Diagnose Spina Bifida?

Because screening tests don’t provide a definite answer, it’s important that you’re then referred for further investigations if your baby is considered at risk of a birth defect like spina bifida.

If those investigations were not properly carried out, the consequences could be severe and you may have a claim for medical negligence.

If your child is born with spina bifida after being given the all-clear, we may be able to help you make a wrongful birth claim.

What Can Compensation Pay For?

Our solicitors will tirelessly pursue the funds you need for a good quality of life. We’ll make sure that your compensation takes into account all of your family’s requirements, both present and future. It can help pay for the extra costs associated with your child’s disability, such as:

  • Care and medical treatment
  • Occupational therapy
  • Speech and language therapy
  • Education needs
  • Accommodation needs
  • Medical treatment

We understand what an emotional and difficult decision it is to make a wrongful birth claim, so you can rest assured that we’ll treat your case with the sensitivity it deserves.

Read More FAQs

Related Information - Spina Bifida Claims

Public Law & Human Rights - our Public Law & Human Rights team can help you defend your rights
Support and Rehabilitation Co-coordinators - we have a dedicated team of support and rehabilitation co-coordinators who will guide you through the claims process
Asset Management - our financial advisors can make sure your compensation lasts your child’s whole lifetime
What Is Medical Negligence? - helpful information about making a compensation claim

Scottish Flag All Scottish cases will be handled by the Scottish law firm with which we are associated, Irwin Mitchell Scotland LLP. The law relating to funding is different in Scotland and you will receive separate advice about what that means as well as a separate funding agreement.

 

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