Establishing acceptable professional practice – learnings for birth injury claims from the Nemes case

Synopsis

Nemes v South Eastern Sydney Local Health District¹ concerned a medical negligence claim by Erika Nemes and Zsolt Nemes, (the plaintiffs), in relation to birth of their son 'Benny'. Benny was born at the Royal Hospital for Women at Randwick, (the Hospital), on 2 April 2016 and was later found to have disabilities including infantile seizures and Global Development Delay.²

The key issue before Chief Justice Harrison was whether Benny's disabilities were as a result of an alleged negligent failure by the Hospital to deliver him earlier or whether they were alternatively unrelated to the timeliness of the delivery.³ The Hospital submitted that the disabilities were never preventable in the sense that they were congenital and unavoidable notwithstanding any earlier delivery.⁴