Dubai court orders Dh200,000 compensation for stillbirth due to medical negligence

Dubai: A Dubai civil court has ordered two doctors and two nurses at a private hospital to pay Dh200,000 in compensation to the parents of a stillborn child, ruling that their medical negligence during labor directly caused the fetus’s death.

The court also imposed a 5 per cent legal interest on the award, effective from the date the ruling becomes final until full payment, in addition to court fees and expenses.

The case was brought by an Arab couple who sought Dh499,000 in damages for the physical, psychological, and financial harm they endured following the loss of their baby. 

The wife had been under the hospital’s care throughout her pregnancy. However, during delivery, her case was managed by a second doctor and two nurses who, according to the complaint, failed to adequately monitor the fetal heartbeat and respond to warning signs. Their alleged negligence resulted in the fetus’s death inside the womb.

The couple filed a complaint with Dubai Health Authority’s Medical Liability Committee, which found “gross medical error” due to deviations from standard medical practices. 

The defendants appealed to the Supreme Committee of Medical Liability, but the second review upheld the initial findings. 

The committee determined that responsibility was shared equally among the four caregivers, each bearing 25 percent of the fault, citing failures that included misreading fetal monitoring, neglecting to recognize high-risk pregnancy indicators, turning off the monitoring device, and failing to track the fetal heartbeat for an extended period.

The hospital and its staff denied wrongdoing, claiming the death may have been natural, possibly caused by an umbilical cord complication or genetic factors. They also argued that the fetal monitor had been removed at the mother’s request so she could eat and use the restroom, despite medical advice not to do so.

In its ruling, the court emphasized that under Federal Decree Law No. 4 of 2016, Medical Liability Committees are entrusted with the technical assessment of medical negligence cases, including severity, causation, and apportioning of fault. The Supreme Committee’s report, the court said, was conclusive and decisive. The court also applied the Civil Transactions Law to calculate compensation in proportion to the harm sustained.