A 10-year-old girl who has a limp arm as a result of alleged negligence at the time of her birth has brought a High Court action for damages.
Clodagh Farrell has, through her mother Julianna Farrell, a mother of eight, Woodview Heights, Dunboyne, Co Meath, brought proceedings against the Rotunda maternity hospital, Dublin, and two doctors there, Dr Paul Byrne and Dr Etap Akpan.
It is claimed that the defendants were negligent in that they failed to properly consider Ms Farrell's request for a delivery by Caesarean section and had applied traction to an excessive degree in an attempt to deliver the baby.
The defendants deny the claims.
Opening the case, Henry Hickey SC said that when a baby's shoulder became caught during delivery, there was a risk of brain damage and death if the baby was not delivered within 10 minutes. He was contending that the risk of shoulder dystocia - the baby's shoulder becoming stuck - should have been foreseen and a Caesarean performed on Ms Farrell.
Mr Hickey said Ms Farrell had given birth to three girls before Clodagh. Nursing notes had shown that when her daughter Rebecca was being delivered on September 26th, 1988, there was also a shoulder problem. Rebecca was delivered without injury.
Mr Hickey said experts on his side would say that the chance of Clodagh having a shoulder dystocia were 17 times greater because her sister had experienced the same difficulty. Ms Farrell had had four children since Clodagh's birth and all were delivered by Caesarean section.
Several attempts were made to pull Clodagh out and Ms Farrell recalled a lot of panic in the room when she was trying to deliver her child, Mr Hickey said. Clodagh was delivered after seven minutes and was noted to have a limp left arm. She had since had several operations, he added, and had very little use of her left arm.