We represented the family of a baby who died after failings at Warwick Hospital; the family were awarded a five-figure payout and an apology. Daniel Kunigiskis died aged just four days after errors were made at Warwick Hospital during his delivery. Daniel suffered a lack of oxygen during his birth, which resulted in a severe brain injury.
There was an inquest into his death, attended by Jeanette Whyman, where it was explained how three different midwives failed to read his mother's antenatal notes, which showed her as a medium risk patient. Furthermore, one of the midwives had a history of making mistakes and a failure by staff to monitor the foetal heartbeat properly.
The testimony of Daniel's mother, Sarah Kunigiskis, made harrowing reading. In addition to the grief of losing her baby, she had to deal with the refusal of the hospital to admit they were at fault while implying that there was something wrong with the baby before delivery. The hospital's refusal to acknowledge that a catastrophic error had occurred made an awful situation far worse. Sarah was willing to speak out to help put pressure on hospitals and NHS Trusts to be more accountable for their actions when mistakes are made by encouraging others in similar situations to challenge the experts if they feel things are not right.
A consultant obstetrician indicated that if he had been aware of problems during Daniel's birth, he could have ensured delivery 45 minutes earlier – which would have meant Daniel would have survived.
If you need guidance on a birth injury claim, please contact our team.
