Assisted Vaginal Birth

JRM was one of twins, delivered by forceps at 29 weeks and suffered serious injury to his spinal cord around the time of his birth. The forceps caused traumatic injury and tearing of the lining of the spinal artery (arterial dissection), and subsequent clot formation within the vessel resulting in vascular injury to the spinal cord due to occlusion of a branch of the anterior spinal artery. It was alleged that this was due to the negligent use of forceps with the claimant in the occipito-lateral (OL) position at birth.