Ciara Holland and Glen Holland v. Coombe Hospital
The Hollands’ fight for justice resulted in a full admission of liability and an acknowledgment of responsibility for their tragic loss in open court although this ordeal could and should have been avoided had the Coombe Hospital conducted itself in the way that it should have.
When Ruby was born at the Coombe maternity hospital on the 21 st July 2016, it was clear that her life was hanging in the balance and it was a medical emergency following maternal birth injuries. When she died on the following day, her parents were left with a sense that her care was not just inadequate, but chaotic. This led them to question that care.
The Hollands’ fight for justice resulted in a full admission of liability and an acknowledgment of responsibility for their tragic loss in open court although this ordeal could and should have been avoided had the Coombe Hospital conducted itself in the way that it should have.
When Ruby was born at the Coombe maternity hospital on the 21 st July 2016, it was clear that her life was hanging in the balance and it was a medical emergency following maternal birth injuries. When she died on the following day, her parents were left with a sense that her care was not just inadequate, but chaotic. This led them to question that care.
The Coombe conducted an internal review by a multidisciplinary team of senior staff. It took just over two years from Ruby’s death – two years and five days to be precise – before the report of that review was given to her grieving and distressed parents. The report claimed that Ruby’s death was not caused by any lack of care at The Coombe but was instead the result of a placental abruption – a condition representing a medical emergency where the placenta comes away from the wall of the uterus before the baby is delivered. The parents sought a meeting with the Master (clinical director) of the hospital and one was arranged, however he failed to turn up to the meeting, leaving it to a nurse practitioner and hospital administrator to explain the complex medical report to the Hollands.
Ruby’s mother Ciara is a nurse. She was not convinced by the explanation given for Ruby’s death. There had been a bleed during labour, but it was not a major one and it seemed unlikely to have caused such a serious injury to Ruby. A truly independent review was required from someone outside The Coombe and so Ruby’s parents asked if we could commission an objective expert opinion from the UK. We ultimately needed three experts to clarify issues of obstetrics and early life care (neonatology), all three of whom were highly critical of the care given both to mother and baby at the Coombe and concluded that but for the gross negligence in their care, Ruby would have survived her birth and gone on to enjoy a normal healthy life.
Following these revelations, Ruby’s parents instructed us to issue court proceedings if the Coombe refused to acknowledge their wrongdoing. We wrote to the hospital in this regard but there was no meaningful response and no acknowledgment of responsibility and so it was necessary to issue High Court proceedings against them.
Ruby’s mother Ciara is a nurse. She was not convinced by the explanation given for Ruby’s death. There had been a bleed during labour, but it was not a major one and it seemed unlikely to have caused such a serious injury to Ruby. A truly independent review was required from someone outside The Coombe and so Ruby’s parents asked if we could commission an objective expert opinion from the UK. We ultimately needed three experts to clarify issues of obstetrics and early life care (neonatology), all three of whom were highly critical of the care given both to mother and baby at the Coombe and concluded that but for the gross negligence in their care, Ruby would have survived her birth and gone on to enjoy a normal healthy life.
Following these revelations, Ruby’s parents instructed us to issue court proceedings if the Coombe refused to acknowledge their wrongdoing. We wrote to the hospital in this regard but there was no meaningful response and no acknowledgment of responsibility and so it was necessary to issue High Court proceedings against them.
Because of the delay in the hospital’s own investigation – the one that concluded that the hospital had done nothing wrong – those proceedings were issued more than two years after Ruby’s death. Shockingly, The Coombe, represented by the State Claims Agency, argued that the parents were ‘statute barred’ from taking the case. In other words, the State Claims Agency and The Coombe threatened this family that they would lose their case because they had ‘delayed’ in taking it even though it was the hospital who had delayed just over two years in producing its own report – a report that incorrectly and self-servingly absolved itself of any failing or wrongdoing.
Mistakes will always be made and in medicine, the consequences of medical negligence are sometimes catastrophic. What marks the quality of a person is how we address those who suffer harm or loss as a result of our errors and in this respect, The Coombe and the State Claims Agency were found seriously wanting in this case. They did everything they could to avoid admitting responsibility and any less determined parents would have buckled against such a powerful and well-resourced defendant. Surely it is morally wrong for a State-funded hospital and a State-funded claims agency to behave like this to grieving parents? Will any questions now be asked of those clinicians who absolved The Coombe of its responsibility – a responsibility it subsequently acknowledged and apologised for before the High Court of Ireland? Will any questions now be asked of those in the State Claims Agency who thought it ‘fair game’ to plead the Statute of Limitations against this family and threaten them with the dire consequences of High Court litigation only to withdraw that plea at the 11th hour in the face of what would have been withering criticism had the case gone to trial? Sadly, the answer in this case, as in
so many others is probably ‘no’.
We can only account for our own actions and the courage and fortitude of Ciara and Glen Holland marks them out as an example to others who find themselves in a similar dreadful situation. They saw what they believed to be a wrong, they sought an acknowledgement of that from The Coombe and when that reasonable request was met with a whitewash report, they went about establishing the truth for their daughter, themselves, and their family. They have done what they set out to do.
Hopefully, there will be some small comfort in that.
so many others is probably ‘no’.
We can only account for our own actions and the courage and fortitude of Ciara and Glen Holland marks them out as an example to others who find themselves in a similar dreadful situation. They saw what they believed to be a wrong, they sought an acknowledgement of that from The Coombe and when that reasonable request was met with a whitewash report, they went about establishing the truth for their daughter, themselves, and their family. They have done what they set out to do.
Hopefully, there will be some small comfort in that.
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