in Brittany, the parents of a stillborn baby attack the maternity ward

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The parents ofa stillborn child asked this Thursday, December 19, 2024, to the administrative court of appeal to condemn the Lannion-Trestel hospital center (Côtes-d’Armor) to pay them €20,000 each in compensation for the “mistake” he committed in the management of this birth.

The fetus without life “for four to seven days”

The young woman of 21 years old had in fact been followed by the doctors of the Trégorrois hospital for this first pregnancy when she was 21 years old. Unfortunately, and although she presented herself at the hospital “without any particular clinical signs”, apart from “contractions”, she gave birth “to a lifeless girl » on March 5, 2018.

An examination noting “the deformation of the skull” then made it possible to estimate that the fetus had in fact been lifeless “for four to seven days”, it was said during the hearing. An “abnormally low level of amniotic fluid” was noted but the causes of death have not yet been clearly established.

Diagnostic error?

The couple believes that the hospital center committed a “fault” characterized by a “diagnosis error” during the last two “control visits” on February 19 and 20, 2018: an ultrasound concluded that “a normal cardiac risk” and an “anemia” for which the mother had received a treatment of Venofer, a medication which contains iron.

But the public rapporteur – whose opinions are often followed by judges – recommended this Thursday, December 19, 2024, that the administrative court of Nantes confirm the judgment rendered against them by the administrative court of Rennes on June 23, 2023.

A contentious ultrasound

After recalling that “the responsibility of a public hospital establishment” could only be held in the event of “committing fault”, the magistrate in fact considered, in view of the elements of the file transmitted to the court, that “nothing ‘indicated that the pregnancy was not progressing normally.’

The couple had, however, emphasized that the disputed ultrasound had noted “a decreased fetal movements“. But according to the public rapporteur:

Nothing demonstrates that good medical practices would have required implementing other medical measures. The causal link between possible diagnostic inadequacies and the child’s death is difficult to establish because the reasons for the child’s death are not known.

The parents’ lawyer, both present at the hearing in Nantes, is not of the same opinion: he affirmed that the hospital center faults de Lannion were “clearly established” in this case.

A “first term date was planned for February 20, 2018” and had been “changed to March 4,” he first cited as an example. The disputed ultrasound also lasted only “two minutes” and was carried out by a person who “did not master the device”. A “second meeting” therefore had to be organized, he explained to the Nantes judges.

The hospital refused a cesarean section

The nurse who had taken care of the young woman in labor on February 20, 2018 would herself have been “very surprised” that the induction of labor had not been done, and the hospital would have “refused” a cesarean section to her. patient after she learned of her baby’s death in utero.

The staff had also “put the child in her arms even though she had refused”. Today, in the absence of compensation, the plaintiffs, who have since had two other children without any particular complications, but who were born in another maternity hospital – are demanding at least an “expertise” for “ know the truth« .

Some doctors didn’t seem very comfortable with this situation.

The Lannion-Trestel hospital center was neither present nor represented by a lawyer at the hearing.

The Nantes Administrative Court of Appeal, which has put the case under advisement, will deliver its judgment in the coming weeks.

ED (PressPepper)

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