A young woman who "should not have been born" will receive millions from her mother's doctor

In 2001, a British gynecologist did not update a woman who was trying to conceive about the importance of taking folic acid during this critical period.

He will now pay her daughter millions as compensation for the health problems she suffers as a result of his negligence

Walla!

health

06/12/2021

Monday, 06 December 2021, 09:18 Updated: 09:22

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Evie Toombes, a 20-year-old British girl, is a well-known athlete who rides horses and does show jumping, but also suffers from a "cleft spine" (Spina Bifida), a defect that develops in fetuses in the first month of pregnancy and causes one or more spinal vertebrae to develop. .

Although my father manages to lead a relatively routine life, she is sometimes assisted by a wheelchair and sometimes has to move 24 hours while connected to hospital tubes.

The understandable frustration led her to make a decision that others would hardly even think of - to sue her mother's gynecologist, Dr. Philip Mitchell, who she claims bears full responsibility for the fact that she was born with this shock and suffered from it all her life.

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To the full article

This argument may seem puzzling at first reading, but when you delve deeper into this story, you can certainly find logic in it.

My father claims that the doctor did not recommend to her mother Carolyn to take folic acid before she became pregnant.

It is a supplement that could have reduced the risk of spinal cord injury.

This, in retrospect, could have led to my father never coming into the world.

This is because if Carolyn had known about the possible deficiency in her body of folic acid, she could have chosen to postpone the attempts to conceive, until her condition was balanced.

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A post shared by Showjumper… + health issues ?? ‍♀️ (@ evie.toombes)

There is no doubt that such a claim causes quite a few backlash levels, and it is doubtful whether many people thought along the way that my father's claim would be accepted.

However, last week, the London Supreme Court ruled in her favor - and the amount of compensation she will receive is high and unprecedented.

Her lawyers say that the calculation of the full amount has not yet been completed, but she will receive compensation for all the treatments and mental anguish over the years, an amount that will amount to millions of pounds.

"He told me to go home and have a lot of sex"

In February 2001, Caroline, my father's mother, came to Dr. Mitchell for counseling before she began trying to conceive. She said she and her husband agreed not to have sex at all until they decided to have a child. This syndrome, adding that the doctor told her to go home and "have a lot of sex", advice which she said was very blatant.

"He told me that it is not at all necessary to take a folic acid supplement," she added, Need for supplements. "The lawsuit states that if Carolyn had received better advice from the doctor, she would have continued to avoid having sex with her husband.

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For my father, the significance of the decision is of course extremely dramatic.

Aside from the fact that she would not have come into the world at all if things had gone differently, today she has to deal with a limitation that will only get worse with the years.

In the future, she will have to increasingly use a wheelchair.

In addition she suffers from intestinal and bladder problems.

Dr. Mitchell, for his part, claimed that he did explain to Caroline the importance of taking folic acid at a meeting. He also tried to argue that she may have already become pregnant even before she visited him, but this claim was refuted in court.

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A post shared by Showjumper… + health issues ?? ‍♀️ (@ evie.toombes)

The judge, Rosalind Coe, ruled that "in these circumstances, it can be concluded that Mrs. Tombs was not pregnant at the time of Dr. Mitchell's consultation. She did not receive adequate advice on the importance of taking folic acid before getting pregnant and for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. She also did not receive information about the connection between taking folic acid and preventing a cleft spine and neural tube defects. "The court hearings will continue to determine the exact amount of compensation she will receive.

And if you are giving women who are thinking of getting pregnant for the first time, or gynecologists who want to avoid paying millions in compensation in a few decades, we emphasize that to avoid the chance of pregnancy defects, it is recommended to take 400 micrograms of folic acid every day before pregnancy - and for 12 weeks.

This is an ingredient that is sometimes difficult to obtain from diet alone so it is advisable to take the supplement that ensures that you meet the required daily quota.

For this reason and since sometimes even desirable pregnancies can be unexpected or planned, most health care organizations overwhelmingly recommend taking folic acid for women of childbearing age.

• health

• Pregnancy and Birth

Tags

• Folic acid

• Pregnancy

• disability

• Claim

• negligence