Did a Bristol hospital fail to stitch your perineal tear after birth? If so please get in touch with us at Glynns Solicitors. We specialise in perineal tear claims and can suggest whether you could be entitled to take legal action against the hospital at fault. If there is a case of medical negligence, you could be entitled to compensation.
My tear was not stitched after birth Bristol
When a woman sustains a perineal tear during childbirth, the treating clinicians must diagnose the injury and repair it within a reasonable amount of time. There is no set time limit, but generally speaking a repair should be conducted within a matter of hours, rather than days. Certainly the tear should be diagnosed and repaired before a patient is discharged home from hospital.
Unfortunately this does not always happen. This may seem extraordinary as perineal tears are a common part of childbirth. Any reasonably competent medical practitioner working in gynaecology and obstetrics should be able to identify a perineal tear – particularly a severe one such as a third or fourth degree tear. But sometimes errors and oversights are made and a tear goes unnoticed.
Normally a tear will be missed because a proper examination was not carried out after the delivery, or because the medical practitioner conducting the examination did not spot the tear. In some cases a tear will be identified but it is wrongly diagnosed as a minor tear, when in actual fact it is severe. This means that the entirety of the tear is not repaired.
Whatever the circumstances, if a perineal tear is not stitched after the birth because of medical errors, the level of care will be considered unacceptable. People who have suffered harm because of unacceptable medical care are deemed to be the innocent victims of medical negligence.
Medical negligence claims Bristol
Missed perineal tears often lead to successful compensation claims because a failure to diagnose and treat a tear is unacceptable. With severe tears such as 3rd and 4th degree tears, it is very likely that an untreated tear will result in complications that could have been avoided, had a repair been carried out. These complications typically include faecal urgency and incontinence.
Therefore if your tear was not stitched after you gave birth and you have since developed complications, you need to talk to a lawyer. This will give you the chance to find out if you are entitled to claim compensation. Contact us today for more information.