Please help us get justice

Hello, my name is Whitney and I have been contemplating whether I should do this or not as I didn’t have any luck when I posted about my cause before, however i feel no stone can be left unturned in my situation as I truly need any assistance that I can get.!

I am here to ask for help in paying for a medico-legal expert’s report regarding my son, who was killed at birth due to multiple acts of negligence by a midwife during my intrapartum care. And it has recently transpired in paperwork that my had died from lack of oxygen in the womb and had spinal and brain haemorrhaging which was caused by the midwife’s lack of action and then the Doctor’s performing a ventouse delivery at the 12th hour.

As some of you may or may not know in the UK’s NHS system when things like this tragically happen, the NHS give you just 3yrs “do something about it” but given that i was just a naive 21yr old, I couldn’t process my emotions enough to continue fighting once the hospital straight away denied any responsibility. So I fell in a deep hole of depression and alcohol and by the time I was so sure i was strong enough to fight again, I was being told by solicitors that I’m a year out of time and so I couldn’t pursue any justice for my baby. It was never about the money to me, it was all about making sure they took accountability for his lost life and that this wouldn’t happen again! So I took what I was told as gospel, had more children and attempted to live a normal life. Which sadly I failed at due to the unresolved trauma I was still facing.

Years past, and more and more stories started cropping up of more beautiful babies who were sadly also losing due to the same sort of circumstances and this was being played out all over the news in the UK. And after my rainbow baby asked me for a heart to heart one night about her older brother and in particular what I did about it, I decided I would go this route alone, and seek the justice I should have had many years before.

By the grace of God alone, last August, 13yrs after my first child was born I contacted the hospital again and restarted my pursuit for justice. I’ve received my subject access report which has omissions/redactions and so many mistakes that they made on that night. I did everything by the book and waited for them to respond, but after 5months they failed to give any tangible response to my claim.. So in February I filed a claim at the high court. Again, this is all without any sort of legal representation and it was accepted by the courts!

As I dove further into this, in April, the defendant then applied for a “stay” based on me needing to produce a medico-legal expert’s report stating where the negligence took place, and gave me 2months to do so. That expert is another midwife of an independent firm. They also said I was to write my particulars of claim based on CPR Rules, which was agreed by the judge. Something which I just couldn’t do, as I was essentially writing a witness statement.

In a panic I found myself a solicitor that same month who thankfully took my case on as a no win no fee because he is very certain that if I managed to get it this far by myself in just 8months, then my case has a lot of merit.

Where I’ve become stuck is that the expert who is ready to do this report by the 15th June, has stated they need to be paid £1600 within 30days of sending the report to us, otherwise the solicitor will be held liable and fined. Although the original fee was discounted after some negotiation by my solicitor, somehow It still feels like a kick in the teeth as my hands are tied. We’ve asked if they would be willing to accept the payment when the claim has been won, however they have refused each time. I’m now trying to keep the faith that somehow someway, I can get this report thats going to bring me long awaited closure.

I am in no way asking for the full amount from one person, and I hate even asking. I’ve been doing everything I can to raise money on my side too as time is fast running out and we need to have the stay lifted in the high court on the 27th. But if anybody can spare anything to just help me get to my goal, you don’t even know what that would mean to me ❤️ 14yrs ive waited to hold them accountable and we are just so close now! There are other things that the solicitor says we may need ie an expert psychiatric report and obstetrician’s report just to give them no room to wriggle out of it with more lies but for me the main thing has to be done first and that is proving that my son would still be here if it wasn’t for the midwife’s breach of duty.

My solicitor has also just told me this week that he has fronted £1000 to get a barrister to amend my particulars of claim, which was something I didn’t even know I would have had to do! I cannot thank him enough!!

If you are unable to donate, please please will you share and get my story out there so maybe somebody else could see and possibly donate/pass on too. Any help I receive, please know I am so very grateful for

Thank you so much for reading my story/donating/sharing and God bless you all xx