De Martell v Merton and Sutton Health Authority

(1995) 6 Med LR 234

QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION

and Honour Judge Simpson QC

Limitation — Knowledge — Constructive knowledge — Whether special circumstances of conception made it reasonable for plaintiff with atheotic cerebral palsy not to investigate circumstances of birth — Whether court should exercise discretion in favour of plaintiff — Prejudice — Professional liability - Midwife — Negligence - No descent for eight hours and caput plus plus — Whether midwife should have called in doctor of at least registrar status — Causation — Cerebral palsy — Whether plaintiff had established, on balance of probabilities, that his condition of atheotic cerebral palsy was caused by negligence during birth