AN inexperienced maternity doctor acted negligently by delaying the delivery of an unwell baby which was subsequently born with brain damage, a judge has ruled.

Dr Olubumni Oniya (CORR) failed to follow proper guidelines when monitoring the condition of one of her patients at Wishaw General Hospital almost nine years ago.

The woman, who has not been named, gave birth to a little girl at the medical facility at 7.34pm on December 1, 2007.

But her child suffered brain damage and developed cerebral palsy after the birth took place. She had developed health issues at 6.18pm which Dr Oniya failed to act upon properly by carrying out an emergency assisted delivery.

In a written judgment issued at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Lord Brailsford ruled that Dr Oniya – who was a registrar at the time of the birth – did not follow best practice guidelines set by medical watchdogs.

If she had, the baby would have been delivered at an earlier time and she would have been “unlikely” to have suffered an injury.

In his judgment Lord Brailsford writes: “It is proven that Dr Oniya was in a general sense, relatively inexperienced.

“She did not follow the guidelines and furthermore did not seek the advice of a senior colleague.

“Having regard to all the foregoing features, I am satisfied that Dr Oniya’s management in the period following 18:18 was negligent.”

The judgment was issued following proceedings which were heard at the Court of Session earlier this year. All parties involved in the case had agreed that the child had suffered “injury from acute hypoxia” in the 30 minutes before her birth.

They also agreed that if the child had been delivered at any time before 7.14pm on the night, it would have been “unlikely to have suffered any injury”.

Dr Oniya qualified as a doctor in 1992 and had practiced in America before coming to Britain. She had spent some time working in the labour ward at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley. She had joined the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaeclogists after passing the institute’s exams in May 2007.

On the day of the birth, Dr Oniya was the only registrar on duty at Wishaw General Hospital and the woman, who was aged 20 at the time of her baby’s birth, developed health issues at 6.18pm.

The court heard how the baby’s heart rate had dropped and there were also indicators the child could suffer injuries if it wasn’t delivered quickly. However, Dr Oniya only took foetal blood samples at the time. Lord Brailsford ruled that medical evidence showed that Dr Oniya shouldn’t have done so at that point.

He wrote: “Consideration requires in the context of the situation at 18.18 to be given to both the NICE guidelines and the RCOG guidelines.

“Both of these guidelines advise that where there is clear evidence of acute foetal compromise, an example of which is a prolonged deceleration of greater than three minutes, foetal blood samples should not be undertaken and, in the case of NICE, urgent preparation to expedite birth should be made and, in the case of the RCOG, the baby should be delivered urgently.”

“Notwithstanding these considerations Dr Oniya did not follow either the NICE or RCOG guidance in the period following 18.18 in that she did not prepare for the immediate delivery of the baby by means of an assisted vaginal delivery.