Parents of birth date error baby may take legal action
Tuesday May 23 2006
THE parents of a baby girl who died after being delivered almost six weeks prematurely by caesarean section following an error by medical staff over due dates may take a civil court action.
Baby Jessica Darcy Lampf was delivered five weeks and four days early, despite her mother Therese repeatedly alerting staff at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda that the incorrect due date had been entered in her file.
Little Jessica was delivered by elective caesarean section on July 8, 2003 - a full 39 days before her actual due date. She died from multi-organ failure 10 days later.
Speaking after the conclusion of Jessica's inquest at Dublin City Coroner's Court yesterday, her parents Conan and Therese said it would be a fitting tribute to their little girl if hospitals ensured such a mistake could never happen again.
The family, from Dundalk Road, Carlingford, Co Louth, are considering a civil case against the hospital. Jessica was the third of the couple's four children.
Before her death, doctors had formed a working diagnosis that Jessica was suffering from either sepsis, an infection, or from a possible inherited metabolic condition. However, at the resumed hearing yesterday, the court was told the latter had been ruled out.
Although a verdict of medical misadventure was considered by coroner Dr Brian Farrell, the court heard from legal counsel for the hospital, Paul McGinn BL, that there was no evidence that Jessica died of sepsis as a result of her premature birth.
Dr Siobhan Gormley, consultant neonatologist at the Drogheda hospital, had earlier testified that the expected outcome for babies born at 34 weeks would be "excellent, with practically 100pc survival". She said that, while unusual, full-term babies can also develop sepsis.
However, Eamon Coffey, barrister for the Darcy Lampfs, said that because Jessica was delivered prematurely she required medical treatment almost from the moment of birth, including the administration of antibiotics through an intravenous line. He pointed out that Dr Gormley had earlier testified that such interventions could make premature babies more prone to infections.
Dr Farrell said he would record a narrative verdict setting out the circumstances of Jessica's death, including the incorrect transcription of her due date, that sepsis was the most likely underlying cause of her death and that infants of 34 weeks prematurity are at risk of infection.
The inquest also heard from Prof Denis Gill, a paediatrician and nephrologist who saw Jessica at Temple Street Children's Hospital in Dublin two days before her death on July 18.
"She ran a very stormy course with us and required maximum ICU support from us. Despite all our efforts, Jessica unfortunately died," he said.
Clinicians believed that had she survived, Jessica may already have suffered irreparable brain damage.
On the first day of the inquest in December last year, midwife Winifred Berkley told the court that following an ultrasound scan in February 2003 she had inadvertently written a due date of July 13 on Mrs Darcy Lampf's file when it should have read August 16.
Mrs Darcy Lampf noticed the mistake and, when she returned to the hospital the following month for a routine check-up, alerted the doctor to the mistake. She was reassured that staff realised her true due date was in August and not July.
Mrs Darcy Lampf had delivered her first two children by caesarean section so doctors decided that she would do the same again with Jessica.
On her next check-up she again told the midwife that an error had been made in her file but was told "not to worry".
However, when she next attended the hospital in June a doctor told her she was 37 weeks rather than the expected 32 weeks pregnant and would now deliver in July.
When she came in for her final check-up a week later, she was told by consultant obstetrician Dr Seosaimh O Coigligh that she was now 38 weeks pregnant and would undergo the caesarean on July 8.
It was only when doctors delivered the 5.5lb baby that they realised their error.
- Breda Heffernan
