Severe Perineal Tear Compensation Claims
If you are suffering permanent symptoms due to negligent care of a severe perineal tear during childbirth, you may be wondering what options are available to you. It may be appropriate to make a claim for compensation.
What is a severe perineal tear?
Most women who give birth through the vagina experience some degree of damage to the perineum as the baby is born. For the majority of women, this will be a fairly small tear, referred to as a 1st or 2nd degree tear, which should be resolved promptly and effectively. Only a few women, perhaps 5 - 10 in every one hundred, suffer a severe tear.
A severe tear is one which extends from the vagina, across the perineum and damages the muscles which control bowel movements. This is referred to as the anal sphincter. A 3rd degree tear will damage the external anal sphincter to some extent and may also damage the internal anal muscle. A 4th degree, the most severe form of birth tear, will additionally cause damage to the lining of the anal canal. Such an injury can also lead to the development of a fistula between the rectum and the vagina, leaving a woman to suffer the appalling symptom of leakage from the vagina.
Medical care of a severe tear
Perineal tears are a known risk of vaginal childbirth. Severe perineal tears are known to be a particular risk to first-time mothers, women of Asian ethnicity and women who have required an instrumental delivery with forceps or ventouse.
In order to avoid the possible permanent symptoms of incontinence of wind and faeces associated with unrepaired severe birth tears, it is essential that medical professionals provide prompt and scrupulous perineal care to a new mother.
Appropriate and acceptable medical care would involve a thorough examination of the new mother, including a digital rectal examination, followed, where necessary, by an accurate diagnosis and skilled repair.
Claiming compensation for negligent care
If a new mother does not receive the appropriate level of care and suffers long-term symptoms as a result of her 3rd or 4th degree tear, she may be entitled to make a claim for compensation.
Where she has suffered financial losses, such as a loss of income, due to the severity of her symptoms, those losses would be incorporated into a successful claim.
Speak to a legal specialist
Glynns Solicitors is a dedicated medical negligence legal practice with extensive experience of high-value perineal tear claims.
Contact us to talk to a specialist solicitor, free of charge, about the possibility of making a claim for compensation.
Please call us on 0800 234 3300 (or from a mobile 01275 334030) or complete our Online Enquiry Form.
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