Growing numbers of families will take legal action over autism linked to their children’s traumatic birth, says a lawyer.
Irish solicitor Michael Boylan made the prediction after securing multi-million Euro settlements for several families.
Lawyer Michael Boylan expects more litigation from families linking their child’s autism to birth injuries
Up to €38m won
Boylan argues that growing research has linked autism and other neurodevelopmental issues to oxygen deprivation during labour.
The lawyer has helped win up to €38m for families.
He has said that “it seems likely that there will be more of these type of actions”.
Settled out of court
All of Boylan’s cases have involved out-of-court settlements, with none of the hospitals admitting liability.
In January, he won an interim settlement of €2.95m for eight-year-old Shane Keating Fitzgerald, who is autistic. The payment was over his birth at Cork University Maternity Hospital.
The case is due to go to court again in five years’ time so Shane’s needs can be assessed.
First case
In the first case of its kind in Ireland, in October 2015 seven-year-old Calum Taaffe’s family settled for €2.15m after suing Dublin’s Coombe Hospital.
In another case, 13-year-old Finn Phillips’ family got €7.25m in June 2019, after linking his autism and developmental delay to his traumatic birth.
Last October, eight-year-old Ashton Shiels Flynn’s mother Michelle won a settlement for €10m in damages, plus costs, from the National Maternity Hospital.
And in Britain, the family of a seven-year-old boy, who had autism and several other conditions, was awarded £30m in damages from the NHS in 2019 for a birth injury.
Medical link to birth complications
In 2016, research led by California-based Dr Darios Getahun found birth complications increase the risk of autism.
Also in 2016, research led by Dr Caorline Ahearne, of University College Cork, linked birth complications to hyperactivity, autism and schizophrenia. Several other studies have reached similar conclusions.
Boylan says this evidence should prompt Ireland’s State Claims Agency (SCA), which settles these cases for the Irish government, to respond sympathetically to families.
He accuses the agency of risking adding to the trauma families face by opposing these cases to the “bitter end”.
A spokesman for the SCA said it was “acutely conscious” of the ordeals suffered by families, but is obliged to investigate claims “thoroughly”.
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Published: 18 June 2023
