Teenager sues hospital over mother’s death

A GRIEVING teenager and her grandmother are suing hospital chiefs for £300,000, claiming medics missed an obvious chance to save the pregnant woman’s life.

Lisa O’Neill was 15 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to hospital suffering stomach pains and being violently sick.

It is claimed doctors at Borders General Hospital decided not to surgically examine Miss O’Neill for fear it could harm the unborn baby.

The 33-year-old was sent home and languished in bed for two weeks before suddenly dying in August 2006.

Now her 18-year-old daughter is leading a family legal action against Borders Health Board, claiming negligence.

Caitlin O’Neill, who was only 12 at the time of her mother’s death, is claiming £200,000. Caitlin lost the “society and guidance” of her mother, according to court papers.

The remaining £100,000 is being claimed by Miss O’Neill’s mother, Anne, 59, and her brothers, Kieran and Ryan.

Anne O’Neill, who nursed her daughter at her Melrose home in the days before her death, said at the time: “My daughter should not be dead – it should not have happened.

“Lisa was sent home in pain. She could hardly walk when I went to pick her up from the hospital. As well as my daughter, I have also lost what would have been my first grandson.”

The family allege doctors should have operated on Miss O’Neill to find out the cause of her stomach pains and sickness, claiming that the procedure posed only a “small risk” to the unborn boy, who died along with his mother.

Papers lodged at the Court of Session in Edinburgh say Miss O’Neill was admitted to the hospital in Melrose on 30 July, 2006, suffering from upper abdominal pain.

A series of tests showed the mother, who had a history of ectopic pregnancy, had an elevated white cell count, an obstruction in her intestine and fluid in her abdomen.

Medics considered carrying out a laparotomy, which would have involved making a large incision to her abdomen, lawyers claim.

The legal papers say one consultant “considered performing” the procedure, but chose not to do so “due to a risk to her unborn child”.

Apart from being referred to a pain clinic, it is claimed Miss O’Neill “was not thereafter treated or investigated further by the surgical team at the hospital”.

Miss O’Neill was discharged after five days in hospital and went home, where she continued to suffer from abdominal pain and sickness and was bed-bound.

In the early hours of 18 August, she was found “unresponsive” by her partner, Robert Smith, and shortly afterwards pronounced dead at the hospital.

A post-mortem found Miss O’Neill died of peritonitis, an inflammation of the thin tissue that lines the inner walls of the abdomen.

The family’s lawyers pointed out that Miss O’Neill had a “longstanding and severe history of abdominal pain and vomiting”.

And they added: “The small risk of harm to the unborn child should not have influenced the decision taken… not to perform the laparotomy.”

Court papers say Caitlin was “very close” to her mother and has found it difficult to cope since her death.

Meanwhile. Miss O’Neill’s mother helped her daughter with “washing, dressing, feeding and cooking” and “cared for her day and night”, before her death.

She went through “considerable pain and distress” before her death and her mother has “suffered distress because of her knowledge of the deceased’s suffering”.

Borders Health Board deny the claims.

Their lawyers say that three days before Miss O’Neill left the hospital a doctor and a consultant discussed her condition, but agreed they could find no “serious cause” for her symptoms.

A pain specialist then provided a treatment plan, it is claimed.

Three days after she was discharged, Miss O’Neill’s GP suggested she go back to hospital. But Miss O’Neill “did not want to be readmitted”, the health board’s lawyers say.

Dr Jean Turner, chief executive of the Scotland Patients’ Association, said: “When somebody is pregnant and has abdominal pain, you really have to do all the tests that you need to do to make sure that you’re not missing something. We would all hope that if something went wrong with our hospital service our relatives would fight to find out what went wrong.

“I hope it works out for this young woman. There’s nothing worse than losing a mother, especially if it could have been avoided.”

Both Borders Health Board and the O’Neill family declined to comment on the case.