A couple who lost their baby son at Mater Dei Hospital eight years ago have lost a case for damages after it was declared to be time barred.

Ian Borg and Nicola Warrick filed their case before the First Hall of the Civil Court, asking it to declare the government’s Chief Medical Officer responsible for the death of their son on 27 December 2008.

The couple had rushed the boy to hospital three days earlier because he was having trouble breathing but the doctor who examined him sent them back home and told them to give him suppositories, cough syrup and paracetamol. Despite their protestations, the doctor insisted that there was no justification to keep the child in hospital.

The boy’s condition worsened and he passed away two days after Christmas at the hospital.

In 2011 they demanded compensation from the CMO and the following year they filed a court case.

Mr Justice Silvio Meli pointed out that the couple’s suit mistakenly stated that the boy died in 2009, when this had occurred in 2008.

The couple argued that they were not given a complete copy of the boy’s death certificate until February 2014 and could not have launched the case earlier. But the court said that despite this delay, the couple had exceeded the time afforded to them by the law and their case was still time barred.

Mr Justice Meli empathized with the couple, which had not only lost a son but had also faced disrespectful treatment at a time when it expected empathy and support and had to wait for years for the child’s birth certificate.

But the law stated that the period during which they could file their case started with the date of death. The death certificate was only needed to register the death and was not required to file the claim.