£51,000 for failing to notice laceration to the bladder during caesarean section

Our client was 41 weeks pregnant with her second child. She attended the Whittington Hospital and was informed there was concern about her baby’s heartbeat. Our client was given an epidural and a decision was made to deliver by way of caesarean section. During the caesarean section, our client’s bladder was lacerated but there was a failure to notice this intraoperatively. Our client initially required a catheter, but once it was removed she continued to experience difficulty passing urine, along with pain.

Our client was discharged home, but after several days in agony and still being unable to pass urine, she returned to the Whittington Hospital where an ultrasound revealed free fluid in her abdomen. Another catheter was fitted and a CT scan was performed. This confirmed the bladder laceration, and she subsequently required a vertical laparotomy and bladder repair.

It was alleged that the hospital failed to recognise our client’s bladder had been lacerated during caesarean section. Accordingly, there was an associated failure to call for an urologist or uro-gynaecologist to conduct a primary repair of the bladder laceration. But for the negligence, a primary bladder repair would have been undertaken whilst our client was on the operating table for her caesarean section and this would have been through the existing abdominal incision.

Instead, our client suffered urinary retention, gross distention of the abdomen and an acute kidney injury. She required an invasive procedure by way of laparotomy to repair her bladder which left her with a large and unsightly scar as well as right-sided paraesthesia which lasted several months. It was also alleged that our client may have difficulties in conceiving naturally in the future and therefore damages were claimed to fund fertility investigations and treatment.