{"id":47404,"date":"2025-09-28T00:53:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T00:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/47404\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T00:53:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T00:53:07","slug":"woman-seeking-350k-in-damages-from-taranaki-health-provider-after-pregnancy-ended-in-stillbirth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/47404\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman seeking $350k in damages from Taranaki health provider after pregnancy ended in stillbirth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Failures in the woman\u2019s care<\/p>\n

Shortly afterwards the woman, who can not be named, raised a complaint with the Health and Disability Commissioner<\/a> (HDC).<\/p>\n

She complained staff at Taranaki Base Hospital<\/a> did not acknowledge that her pregnancy was \u201chigh-risk\u201d and on several occasions when she raised concerns, she felt she was being perceived as \u201cover-anxious\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe woman received care from the midwifery, obstetrics and endocrinology services at Taranaki Base Hospital during her pregnancy.<\/p>\n

The woman also told the HDC no investigations were undertaken in the final three weeks of her pregnancy, despite an escalation in a range of symptoms. <\/p>\n

Five years later, the HDC released its findings, with Deputy Commissioner Rose Wall ruling that Te Whatu Ora Taranaki had breached the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers\u2019 Rights (the Code) in its management of the woman\u2019s diabetes throughout her pregnancy. <\/p>\n

Wall, who said her role was not to determine what caused the baby\u2019s death, found Te Whatu Ora Taranaki did not have an established antenatal diabetes multidisciplinary team in place at the time.<\/p>\n

As a result, the obstetrics and diabetes teams provided the woman with care from separate clinics, which created a disconnect between the specialties and prevented effective co-ordination of clinical care.<\/p>\n

In August 2023, one month after the HDC issued its report, the woman filed a statement of claim with the Human Rights Review Tribunal<\/a> (HRRT).<\/p>\n

She alleged Te Whatu Ora Taranaki breached her rights under the Code in respect of the healthcare she received during her pregnancy.<\/p>\n

The woman\u2019s claim stated she became pregnant, was put into the care of the Taranaki Health Board, that the care did not meet the Code, and she gave birth to a stillborn son.<\/p>\n

However, according to an HRRT decision on the matter, Te Whatu Ora Taranaki denied the woman\u2019s claim and applied to have it struck out on the grounds it failed \u201cto disclose a reasonable cause of action and is otherwise an abuse of process\u201d.<\/p>\n

It stated the claim \u201cwent beyond the breach findings made by the HDC\u201d and was therefore outside the tribunal\u2019s jurisdiction to determine.<\/p>\n

Following a direction from the HRRT, the woman amended her statement of claim and alleged Te Whatu Ora Taranaki had breached the Human Rights Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave birth to my stillborn son at Taranaki Base Hospital. Because of the lack of communication between departments, they failed to give appropriate care,\u201d the amended claim read.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe consequences of this have left me unable to function normally, that I do not feel safe in hospital and can not cope in stressful situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

$350k in damages sought<\/p>\n

The woman opposed the health agency\u2019s strike-out application.<\/p>\n

Te Whatu Ora submitted that she was only able to bring proceedings in respect of the HDC\u2019s specific breach findings, contending her claim primarily regarded the stillbirth and its impact upon her. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no connection between the stillbirth and the HDC\u2019s breach findings, which it says are limited to the care [the woman] received regarding her diabetes,\u201d the decision stated, referring to Te Whatu Ora\u2019s submission.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn taking this position, Te Whatu Ora draws an inference from the level of damages [the woman] seeks ($350,000). <\/p>\n

\u201cTe Whatu Ora submits that \u2018it is not reasonably arguable\u2019 that [she] could have suffered the level of stress required to justify the damages sought because of Te Whatu Ora\u2019s management of her diabetes, and that \u2018the only available inference\u2019 is that the damages sought by [her] relate to the stress she suffered because of the stillbirth.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, in its recent decision, the tribunal ruled that a strike-out application was not the appropriate way to determine those matters. <\/p>\n

Whether damages should be awarded and if so, at what level, should be determined after the collection of evidence and submissions from the parties.<\/p>\n

The tribunal found it had jurisdiction to hear the woman\u2019s claim and that the claim was not an abuse of process. <\/p>\n

It acknowledged Te Whatu Ora\u2019s concerns regarding the way in which the woman had progressed her claim, accepting she had not met various tribunal directions.<\/p>\n

However, it ruled her claim has merit. <\/p>\n

Te Whatu Ora\u2019s application to strike out the woman\u2019s claim was dismissed, and the tribunal directed that another hearing be scheduled to progress the case. <\/p>\n

Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 and is currently an assistant editor and reporter for the Open Justice team. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and M\u0101ori issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Failures in the woman\u2019s care Shortly afterwards the woman, who can not be named, raised a complaint with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[41331,74,22427,8532,71,134,78,111,43,139,69,5994,4410,40249,41332,16715,1354],"class_list":["post-47404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-350k","tag-after","tag-damages","tag-ended","tag-from","tag-health","tag-in","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pregnancy","tag-provider","tag-seeking","tag-stillbirth","tag-taranaki","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}