Woman sues mother’s doctor for ‘wrongful conception’ advice, gets millions in compensation

A woman who sued her mother’s doctor for giving wrong advice during pregnancy has won millions in damages. Twenty-year-old Evie Toombes had claimed in her suit that she should never have been born.

Toombes suffers from spina bifida and spends many of her days connected to tubes. The para-showjumper sued her mother’s doctor Dr Philip Mitchell, claiming that she would have never been born if he had given the right advice to her mother to consume folic acid before conceiving her, as per a Dailymail report.

Toombes sought damages, terming her mother’s pregnancy ‘wrongful conception.’ Consumption of folic acid minimises the risk of spina bifida. She claimed if her mother had received correct advice, she would have put off her pregnancy.

Judge Rosalind Coe QC agreed with Evie and passed a landmark judgment in London High Court on Wednesday. She said in the judgment that if right advice had been given, Toombes’ mother “would have delayed attempts to conceive.” The court added that a “genetically different child” would have been born later.

She also received a big compensation that would cover the cost of her extensive lifelong medical needs. Toombes’s mother said before the court that she had made the ‘very precious decision to start a family after her parents’ death at a young age, and had abstained from sexual intercourse, ‘until after they had received advice’ from the doctor.

Born in November 2001, Toombes was diagnosed with a lipomylomeningocoele (LMM), a form of neural tube defect to the spine leading to permanent disability and she will be more dependent on wheelchair as she grows older, the court heard, as per Dailymail report.

Toombes has paved her career in showjumping, competing against specially-abled and able-bodied riders. Her website says her vision in life is to ‘find a way, not an excuse.’ She is quite active on Instagram and her account is filled with stories of her travel, competitions.

 

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A post shared by Showjumper…+health issues🤷🏻‍♀️ (@evie.toombes)

“I’m aware of how fun our trips away of the look. But at the start of every trip, I spend the day before packing with mum, packing box after box of medical equipment and usually feeling demoralised by the large amount we need just to stay alive for a few days- going without all of my TPN, medications, catheters, stoma supplies and physio just isn’t even an option.

“We choose to still keep going and dealing with it, even when the boxes pile up and we feel exhausted before we’ve even begun- because we completely love what we do, and seeing mum win last week made it all feel worthwhile,” wrote Toombes in one of her posts.