The role of a good doctor doesn't just begin with the right diagnoses and timely treatment; in fact, it's crucial even before a healthy child is conceived. In a landmark medical judgment, a 20-year-old woman has won the right to millions in damages after she sued her mother's doctor for allowing her to be born. Which means, she has sued the doctor claiming she should never have been born.
Evie Toombes, a 20-year-old star showjumper, took Dr Philip Mitchell, her mother's doctor to court over his failure to give an appropriate medical advice to her mother while she was pregnant. Evie Tombes was born with the spinal defect of spina bifida. As a result of the birth defect, Evie sometimes has to spend 24 hours a day connected to tubes, said a report in The Sun.
Evie Toombes claims that if Dr Mitchell had advised her mother to take folic acid supplements for a healthy child and to minimise the risk of spina bifida, her mother would have either delayed or put off getting pregnant. Which, in short, means that either Evie wouldn't have been born or would have born without the spinal defect.
Judge Rosalind Coe QC ruled in favour of Evie at the London High Court on Wednesday. The judgement said that if Evie's mother had been, "provided with the correct recommended advice, she would have delayed attempts to conceive." It adds, "In the circumstances, there would have been a later conception, which would have resulted in a normal healthy child." Thereby giving Evie the right to a huge sum in damages and compensation.
How does her case stand?
Evie Toombes' mother said the same thing to court earlier, that if the doctor had advised her correctly, she would have delayed pregnancy or taken folic acid. "I was advised that if I had a good diet previously, I would not have to take folic acid," she told the judge.
The ruling is a first of its kind as it extends the liability of doctors for any improper medical advice given by them at a pre-conception stage as it can directly result in a baby being born with serious health conditions.
Evie's lawyers haven't yet disclosed or arrived at the exact sum but hinted to the local media that it was likely to be a big sum as it will entail the cost of her lifelong care needs. Spina Bifida is a birth defect when the spine and spinal cord don't form properly and it occurs at the stage when a developing baby's spinal cord fails to develop.
