Boy, 11, sues over death of mother

Linsey McIvor was delivered stillborn after medics at Raigmore Hospital could not trace her heart beat, it is claimed. Her mum Donna, who was 39, died the following day.

Now Colin McIvor, 11, and his father Sinclair, 60, are suing the hospital for negligence over a series of alleged oversights throughout the mother’s pregnancy.

They are suing for damages and claim they lost a “close and loving relationship”. Both Colin and his father are asking for £100,000 compensation each for the death of Mrs McIvor. In a separate claim, Mr McIvor is seeking £20,000 in damages for the death of Linsey.

Mrs McIvor was admitted to the hospital in March 2007 with a suspected urine infection, according to legal papers lodged with the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

After it was discovered the mother-to-be was suffering from acute pancreatitis a scan found baby Linsey had died in the uterus of asphyxia, according to the legal documents. Mrs McIvor’s condition then deteriorated and she died the following day.

According to the court papers, Mrs McIvor’s history of blood problems meant the mother was at risk of developing acute pancreatitis during pregnancy and losing her baby.

A physician wrote a letter to her, before she knew she was expecting for a second time, informing her she was a high-risk.

But her medical history was not recorded in her maternity records when it should have been, lawyers claim.

Hospital medics also failed to manage the overweight mother’s diet or provide her with medication to control her condition, lawyers say.

They also claim that months before her due date the school kitchen assistant was “wrongly” discharged from the hospital’s antenatal unit on the same day she was admitted suffering abdominal pain.

When she was admitted to hospital in March 2007, she was diagnosed with having a urinary infection, it is alleged. Had tests been done, medics would have found that Mrs McIvor was not suffering from a urine infection.

Doctors later found she was suffering from acute pancreatitis and discovered that her baby was dead inside the womb, according to court papers.

At the time of the two deaths, Mr McIvor, who was unavailable to comment on the case, said losing both his wife and daughter was “unbearable”.

“Donna did not even get to see Linsey. She was so beautiful. She was perfect, a gorgeous wee baby,” he said.

“Donna was a fun-loving, wonderful woman who lived life to the full. I just wish she was here right now. I will miss her so much – there is just no sense in this. I have got be strong for Colin.”

Dr Jean Turner, the executive director of the Scottish Patients Association, said she did not want to comment on the specifics of the case. But, she added: “It could be the system that’s wrong compared to the individuals in it. You want continuity of care and you want everybody to be linking up with everybody else. There’s a general trend that doctors and nurses are constantly under pressure.”

Emma Boon, campaign director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Tragic mistakes do happen but when they do there has to be a careful examination of what went wrong so that dreadful incidents like this never happen again.

“Many compensation claims are because of human error or negligence, avoiding mistakes would save lives and cash. Taxpayers’ money that goes on NHS compensation payouts is money that could have been saved or spent on patient care so it’s important for everyone that these payments do not get out of control.”

NHS Highland has denied the negligence claims.