Clodagh Bradley QC, instructed by Richard Money-Kyrle of Boyes Turner, acted on behalf of the successful Claimant Edyta Mordel in a claim for ‘wrongful birth’ where no screening for Down’s syndrome was carried out by the sonographer at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in 2014 when Ms Mordel attended for first trimester screening.
On 8 October 2019 Mr Justice Jay gave judgment for the Claimant in a case giving rise to important issues of informed consent including the insufficiency of the sonographer’s questioning of the Claimant where the Claimant was booked for screening but the sonographer recorded ‘Down’s screening declined’ and did not perform the screening. The Court found that the sonographer did not take sufficient steps to ensure that she was doing what the Claimant wanted and that it remained Ms Mordel’s wish to undergo Down’s syndrome screening.
The Court also found that at the 16-week review appointment, the midwife was in breach of duty in failing to explore why the first trimester screening had not been carried out and in failing to offer quadruple testing, which he found Ms Mordel would have accepted.
The Court found that but for the breaches of duty Ms Mordel would have proceeded to diagnostic testing and termination of the pregnancy. Damages are yet to be assessed to quantify the compensation required to meet the additional cost of caring for Ms Mordel’s much loved son who has Down’s syndrome, over and above the basic costs of maintaining a child without Down’s syndrome in accordance with the principles in Parkinson v St James & Seacroft University Hospital NHS Trust [2002] QB 266.
Judgment available to download here: Mordel v Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust
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