An obstetrician and a private hospital where she practised were yesterday exonerated from any wrongdoing when a baby suffered a neurologic injury during birth.

The child’s parents filed a civil suit against the hospital and the doctor for damages claiming that the baby suffered the injury due to negligence.

When the baby girl was being delivered in October 1999, her head was not turned the right way to facilitate birth and the doctor had to intervene, the parents said. As a result of the difficult birth, the girl suffered a “traumatic right postganglionic brachial plexus lesion”, a neurologic injury that caused functional impairment of the affected upper limb, they added.

The doctor told the court that when a baby’s head emerged, the child would usually turn on its side but, in this case, this did not happen and the girl’s chin did not emerge completely.

A court-appointed expert reported that, after the obstetrician had tried different delivery methods, she was left with the option of either employing an obsolete method or let the child die. “I cannot condemn a manoeuvre, which, admittedly in combination with others, saved [the] baby...’s life.”

It was his opinion, the expert concluded, that the doctor had acted in the way that any obstetrician would have. “No evidence exists that the medical malpractice in her management led to the causation of the child’s brachial plexus injury”, the expert said.

Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti ruled it had not been proven that the doctor and the hospital were responsible for the injuries suffered by the child.