Alyshia Trkulja sues Mater Mothers’ Hospital over stillbirth
A Brisbane woman is suing one of Queensland’s leading private maternity hospitals, claiming its treatment “caused or contributed” to the stillbirth of one of her twins.
Southeast
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A Brisbane mother is suing Mater Mothers’ Hospital, claiming its treatment of her “caused or contributed” to the traumatic stillbirth of one of her twin children.
Coorparoo woman Alyshia Rebecca Trkulja, 40, a successful businesswoman, lodged the personal injury claim in Brisbane Supreme Court against Mater Misericordiae Ltd, the owner of Mater Mothers’ Hospital at South Brisbane where Ms Trkulja was being treated.
According to the claim, Ms Trkulja fell pregnant in early 2018 and was under the hospital’s care by March when a twin pregnancy was confirmed.
Ms Trkulja claims the pregnancy took a turn for the worse on July 1, 2018, when she was admitted as a hospital inpatient following a diagnosis for the identical twins of prolonged preterm rupture of membranes (PPROM).
It was also noted she had stage one twin-twin transfusion syndrome and had suffered a series of bleeds and fluid loss.
According to the claim, from July 21 onwards, Ms Trkulja began showing increasing signs of a troubled pregnancy.
They included several bouts of bleeding, the onset of “severe abdominal pain”, and elevation of Ms Trkulja’s C-reactive protein (a typical sign of infection).
According to the claim, toxic granulation – another telltale sign of infection – was detected in Ms Trkulja’s blood on August 11, 2018, a fortnight before she ultimately gave birth.
She claims the following two weeks saw consistent elevation of her C-reactive proteins and also her white blood cell count, another sign of infection.
Ms Trkulja went into labour in the early hours of August 25, about nine weeks premature, her claim says.
About 1am “it was reported that there was difficulty with tracing the fetal heart rate of the second twin”, the claim said. An emergency caesarian section was undertaken.
The first twin was born at 1.55am, with the second twin stillborn a minute later.
According to the claim, an autopsy report on the stillborn twin revealed the cause of death to be “amniotic fluid infection sequence due to Gardnerella vaginalis” – a species of bacterium.
Ms Trkulja says the bacteria caused an infection of the placenta and amniotic fluid known as chorioamnionitis, which led to “fetal inflammatory responses from both twins”.
The claim says the bactieral infection “occurred in the setting of PPROM at 23 weeks’ gestation”.
The claim alleges the Mater and its staff “failed to act with due care and skill”, “failed to provide appropriate treatment, management and advice to (Ms Trkulja), “failed to properly and adequately monitor (Ms Trkulja’s) and the second twin’s condition”, and “caused or contributed to the death of the second twin”.
This failure resulted in Ms Trkulja suffering an undisclosed psychiatric “injury”, the claim says.
Mater Misericordiae is liable for the injury due to its tortious duty of care owed Ms Trkulja and under s60 of the Australian Consumer Law guaranteeing services supplied to Ms Trkulja be rendered with “due care and skill”.
The amount sought by Ms Trkulja is not publicly accessible.
Ms Trkulja, via her lawyer Courtney Hunter, declined to comment.
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