Bowel perforation arising from caesarean section

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: a case brought on behalf of a young woman who was aged 22 years old at the date of injury.

Our client had a very difficult delivery of her first born child. There were serious issues concerning labour and delivery which was by way of caesarean section and she developed pseudo-obstruction of the bowel (bowel perforation) (Ogilvie’s Syndrome). Unfortunately, this was not recognised at the time, with the result that our client’s bowel perforated in two places and she required life-saving surgery, which left her with a permanent mucous fistula and ileostomy.

Ogilvie’s Syndrome

Whilst a recognised complication of a difficult caesarean section, Ogilvie’s Syndrome is very rare and in fact it was not until expert evidence was obtained, that our client discovered what had actually happened to her. Prior to this she had thought that the bowel perforations were caused by surgical injury during the Caesarean section.

Court Proceedings were issued and served, with the Defendant denying liability throughout. There were no offers of settlement until three months before trial. The offer was too low and upon advice our client rejected it.

There was then a round table meeting two weeks before trial. During the negotiations at the meeting, the Defendant increased its original offer by more than 550% and the claim settled for £450K.

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