Parents blame hospital for newborn's paralysis, court rejects compensation plea

Aya El Deeb, Staff Reporter

The Abu Dhabi Court for Family and Civil and Administrative Cases rejected a lawsuit filed by parents of a child, requesting that a hospital be obligated to pay them Dhs100,000 as temporary compensation, after the child's mother had a delivery in the hospital, but the newborn was paralysed.

The appellants filed their lawsuit, claiming compensation and delegating a medical committee to explain the doctor’s mistake, in addition to obligating the hospital to pay the fees and expenses of the lawsuit and lawyer’s fees.

The mother said that she headed to the hospital to have a surgical delivery, and it was agreed that a cesarean delivery would be performed, after which she was transferred to the delivery room, but the doctor did not attend. She confirmed that the doctor's mistake caused her harm and the paralysis of her child, and that she went later to the hospital with her newborn, but she was driven away to evade responsibility.

She also confirmed that she was the one who asked the hospital to perform a cesarean delivery and pledged to pay all the costs, but the supervising doctor performed a normal delivery, which caused paralysis of the newborn.

The two complainants confirmed that they had taken their son to several hospitals for checking and that they had exhausted the insurance coverage for him.

The court indicated that according to the report issued by the Medical Liability Committee, the mother of the child filed a complaint before the committee against the hospital and that the report did not indicate that a medical error had been committed by the hospital.

It added that the report of the committee was still valid in its initial form, and then the court rejected the lawsuit and obligated the complainants to pay fees, expenses, and lawyer’s fees.