A mother who gave birth to a baby with profound disabilities after she was wrongly told a genetic test was clear has settled her action for damages at the High Court.
Her lawyers say it is the first case of wrongful birth involving the right to travel abroad for an abortion to come before the High Court.
An interim payment of €1.8 million was approved by the court.
The woman was the carrier of a gene for a rare condition and had intended to travel for a termination of the pregnancy if tests showed her baby had the condition.
However, she was told the test was normal and she continued with the pregnancy. Her lawyers told the High Court the parents “continued happily and joyously with the pregnancy but later suffered enormous shock and grief” when the baby was born with a rare condition and has a profound disability.
Mr Justice Kevin Cross made an order that nothing be published which would identify the mother and child. The mother had sued the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin and Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Dublin.
Full liability in the case was only conceded by letter on 13 June last.
Source: RTE