Nearly 1.5 million euros. This is the amount that the Nord Franche-Comté hospital will have to pay to a young man disabled following a medical error that occurred during his birth.
- The Nord Franche-Comté hospital was found guilty of “medical malpractice” during the birth of a young man which led to his disability.
- The administrative court of Besançon asked him to pay nearly 1.5 million to the victim.
- A lack of oxygen during childbirth caused significant neurological sequelae.
The administrative court of Besançon has rendered its decision. The Nord Franche-Comté Hospital (HNFC) has been recognized “responsible for the damage suffered” by a young man disabled since a medical error that occurred during birth in 1998. The establishment, located in Trévenans (Territoire-de-Belfort), will have to pay him nearly 1.5 million euros, according to the judgment.
“A fault in the organization and operation” of the HNFC hospital
In March 1998, the medical team in charge of the plaintiff’s mother decided to perform an emergency cesarean section when the delivery became complicated. But the procedure was started too late and the baby then lacked oxygen, according to L’Est Républicain which reported the case. This lack of oxygen caused significant neurological after-effects which caused the disability of the young man, now 26 years old.
The victim’s parents took the matter to court. A judgment rendered in May 2006 and confirmed in 2007 established that the hospital was “responsible for the child’s harm” and that he had to pay them compensation until he came of age.
When he comes of age, the young man who can only move around “specific wheelchair with molded shell seat, headrest, support strap and footrest” and communicate through a computer with pupil controls, filed a complaint in turn. The court concluded in its judgment delivered last December that the conditions of his birth “cconstitute facts revealing a fault in the organization and operation“from the hospital, and that they are “the direct cause of the after-effects from which he remains affected”.
Medical malpractice: the hospital must compensate the young man
Having established medical malpractice on the part of the HNFC, the Besançon administrative court ordered the establishment to give nearly 1.5 million euros to the young man victim of the medical malpractice. He will also have to pay him a quarterly pension of more than 32,000 euros for his “future assistance expenses by a third party” and its “professional damage”.
The judgment also provides for compensation from the Haute-Saône Health Insurance Fund.
