Bowel injury following vaginal delivery
Tess developed a recto-vaginal fistula following the forceps delivery of her first child. This was treated with a loop colostomy initially, and then she underwent several operations to repair the recto-vaginal fissure. Tess alleged that the forceps delivery and the episiotomy repair afterwards were both negligently performed. PMS Expert Report concluded that Tess’s isolated rectal injury was very rare, and that even a reasonable obstetrics could have missed it. There was no evidence of damage to the anal spincter complex or anal canal, and so the injury could not have been easily detected. The case was dropped.


