Royal Sussex: Grieving father unlikely to get compensation for baby’s death

A father in East Sussex whose baby died due to maternity failings said he felt “worthless” as a Supreme Court ruling meant he was unlikely to qualify for compensation.

Robert Miller, from Hove, pursued compensation over the death of his daughter, Abigail Fowler Miller.

University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust said it had made “several improvements” since her death.

This is applied even when the death was caused by medical negligence.

The judgement came after the families of three people who witnessed a loved one die due to medical negligence brought legal action, claiming that the psychological impact of witnessing the event was a “personal injury”.

Six Supreme Court justices dismissed this claim.

Abigail was delivered by caesarean section after her mother went into cardiac arrest at Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, on 21 January 2022.

An inquest concluded Abigail would likely have survived if her mother, Katie Fowler, had received medical treatment sooner.

In a statement released at the time of the inquest Emma Chambers, Director of Midwifery at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust said: “We extend our deepest condolences to Ms Fowler and Mr Miller”.

Ms Chambers said that since Abigail’s death, the trust had “made several improvements to the way we triage our mothers” and it wanted to do everything possible to keep babies and their mothers safe.

Mr Miller has been seeking secondary victim compensation over the failings that led to Abigail’s death from the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital where she died.

“I was directly involved in this and it has massively affected my mental health,” Mr Miller said.

However, in January, the Supreme Court ruled bereaved relatives could not claim compensation over the psychological impact of seeing a loved one die.

In the ruling, Lord Leggatt and Lady Rose said the law could not “impose duties and liabilities on the basis of sympathy, however strongly felt”.

In response to the ruling, Mr Miller said he felt “helpless”.

“I feel worthless – the legal system has failed me,” he said.

He said the court’s ruling had “missed the mark” and failed to consider the variety of cases that could be affected”.

“We should be able to claim for the help that we need to try and carry on living some sort of normality,” Mr Miller said.

Mr Miller said since the incident he had received private treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder which he paid for himself.

He said that relatives should be able to claim compensation for such treatments.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story you can visit BBC Action Line.