Acquired Brain Injury

The Facts A 17-year-old boy attended the casualty department of his local hospital complaining of severe earache and also ongoing serious headache. He was examined and blood samples were taken for analysis. He was told that he would be contacted when the...

The client was a 34-year-old woman who was just past her due date when she attended hospital to give birth. A CTG during the course of that day showed prolonged deceleration of the foetal heart. In the evening there were further CTG abnormalities.

The client was born at a London Hospital after his mother was induced. There were persistent decelerations apparent on the CTG monitor during delivery. Unfortunately these were not noted and acted on. As a result the baby suffered hypoxic ischaemic encaphalopathy. He was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a result of injury suffered during his birth.

The Facts: Some years before these events, when the young man was 17 years old, a lesion was discovered in his brain stem. He ended up becoming paralysed and he had a tracheostomy fitted to enable him to breathe. A carer from a care agency looked after him from time to time when his family was unavailable.