Injury lawyers help settle NHS negligence claim
A woman has received £25,000 in compensation with the help of injury lawyers after an NHS blunder shattered her dreams of having another child.
The couple from Bridgend, had been undertaking IVF treatment at a Cardiff-based University Hospital of Wales after the woman’s fallopian tubes were damaged after an ectopic pregnancy.
However, the couple were left heartbroken after a trainee working at the hospital failed to take the correct checking procedure and implanted the couple’s last remaining embryo into the wrong patient.
The other patient who had wrongly been injected with the incorrect embryo then terminated the pregnancy after being told of the “accident in the laboratory.”
Guy Forster, who represented the couple stated that the mix-up was “an accident waiting to happen” as the clinic had seen two near misses in the past.
He said: "A report by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) investigators shows that the error occurred primarily due to failures by laboratory and theatre staff to carry out basic procedures. However, it is clear that there were a number of system failings, in that the Clinic had failed to implement the procedures set out in the HFEA's Code of Conduct, workloads were above safe levels and there were staff shortages.
IVF Wales reported two 'near miss' incidents to the HFEA in 2006 and an HFEA inspection in February 2007 had warned the Clinic to tighten its witnessing procedures, yet it would seem nothing was done. This was an accident waiting to happen."
The Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust admitted liability.
Updated on 15/06/2009