Case Study: October 2025
In early October 2025, Cian O’Carroll Solicitors successfully resolved an unusually complex and hard-fought birth injury case after 13 days of hearing before the High Court. This resolution represents an important outcome in a case involving highly technical medical issues and contested expert opinion.
The Background: A 20-Year Battle for Justice
The inspirational Plaintiff, born at just 27 weeks’ gestation in October 2002, brought proceedings against the Coombe Hospital and a retired obstetrician more than 20 years after her birth.
Following her extremely premature birth, she was transferred to the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Scans later revealed intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) and periventricular leukomalacia (PVL)—bleeding into the brain’s ventricles leading to white matter damage. These injuries ultimately led to cerebral palsy, causing extensive loss of mobility.
The Legal Challenge: Statute of Limitations
Unlike many cerebral palsy cases involving intellectual disability, the Plaintiff’s injuries were purely physical. This created a significant legal hurdle: the case had to commence before her 20th birthday to avoid becoming “statute barred” (the legal time limit of two years after reaching adulthood at 18). Through diligent legal management, our team ensured the case was brought forward in time to seek the justice she deserved.
The Core Allegation: Negligent Instrumental Delivery
The case centered on allegations that it was unsafe and negligent to perform a vacuum delivery on a baby of such extreme prematurity. It was our position that alternative methods of delivery should have been used and that the vacuum extraction directly caused the brain injuries (IVH and PVL) leading to her cerebral palsy.
A Robustly Contested Case
Both Defendants robustly contested both liability and causation:
- The Hospital denied any failure in the standard of care.
- The Obstetrician maintained that the Kiwi Silastic Cup was an accepted standard of practice in 2002, arguing that the injuries were a result of preterm birth rather than the delivery method.
Expert Advocacy
Given the complexity of the medicine and the law, the Plaintiff’s legal team assembled ten leading experts across various disciplines, including:
- Obstetrics and Neonatology
- Paediatric Neurology and Neuroradiology
- Microbiology
- Biomechanical Engineering
The Outcome: Securing a Future of Independence
After several weeks of intense expert evidence and 13 days in the High Court, the case settled for a substantial multi-million euro sum.
Despite the very real risk of the case failing on technical grounds of causation, this settlement ensures that the Plaintiff will now have the professional care, specialised supports, and adaptive resources required to live with the independence and security she deserves.