Karen tried to accept what she had been told and attempted to rebuild her life. Twelve years have passed since her baby died and in that time she has had two more children, a boy and a girl. But throughout those intervening years she has relived the horrors of her first experience of birth. She sounds tragically typical of many others in the same situation. The victims of mass tragedies frequently suffer from post traumatic stress disorder but it is also experienced on an individual basis as well.
Typical signs are flashbacks which come involuntarily.
The feeling that you are not able to face up to something is an absolute classic. Karen moved a step towards facing what went wrong and coming to terms with the tragedy when she met a senior doctor at The Friarage Hospital last week. She was left in no doubt that the death of her baby could have been avoided and immediately approached the Neale victim support group. The group passed her on to Mr John's nationally-known firm of specialist solicitors, Cunningham John. Karen's mother now feels terribly guilty for being duped by Mr Neale.