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Woman sues Dublin hospital after baby born on the floor
A woman whose baby was born head first onto the floor of Dublin's Rotunda Hospital as she was moved between beds sued for nervous shock in the High Court.
Lesleyann Flynn broke down in court as she told how she pleaded for help to get on the hospital bed as she was in advanced labour, but her daughter, Mabel, was born onto the floor.
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'I was pushing I told them I couldn't get on the bed. I said please, please help I knew the baby was coming. I then felt the pressure just leave me and the baby was on the floor ,' she told Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds.
The court heard that a letter expressing deepest regret had been sent to Ms Flynn and her partner Ronan Keaskin earlier this month from the Master of the Rotunda Hospital in relation to the incident in 2018.
Opening the case, Roughan Banim SC for Ms Flynn said it was 'a terrifying and frightening experience' for the mother 'who felt she was not listened to and her baby daughter should not have been born on the floor, but she was.'
Mr Banim said the little girl is now six years old and has met all her milestones.
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He said liability was admitted in the case but causation was at issue.
Lesleyann Flynn (40), a mother of three from Baldoyle in Dublin, had sued the Rotunda Hospital, Parnell Square, Dublin, for nervous shock over the circumstances of her daughter's birth in the early hours of December 27th, 2018.
It was claimed there had been a failure to anticipate the delivery of the baby and a failure to take any or any reasonable care for the health and welfare of the mother and of her unborn child during the course of the labour.
In evidence Ms Flynn said she was on a bed and had contractions when a midwife came with a wheelchair to move her to another delivery room.
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She said she could not sit on the wheelchair and was half-sitting and half-standing as she was moved.
When they got to the delivery suite, she said she was told to get on the bed but she said she couldn't because she was pushing.
'I said 'I can't, I can't' and I said 'please, please help'. I knew the baby was coming,' she said.
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After her baby was born onto sheets on the ground, Ms Flynn said she was in complete and utter shock and there was silence in the room.
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She said after she was discharged home she kept playing what happened over and over in her head. She said she was worried about her daughter Mabel but it was some comfort to her that she met all her milestones.
Hospital counsel Eileen Barrington SC with Rory White BL put it to Ms Flynn that hospital records show that the baby girl was showing regular crying within a minute of birth. Ms Flynn replied that when her baby was born, she was not crying.
After a brief recess and talks between the parties, Ms Justice Reynolds was on Tuesday afternoon told the case had been settled and could be struck out.
