The parents of a disabled boy are to get £6 million in personal injury compensation after hospital blunders left him permanently brain damaged.
During the mother’s labour, the boy was left unable to breathe and as a result he developed cerebral palsy. The incident took place at the Queen’s Park Hospital in Blackburn and the family’s personal injury solicitor said that the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust had denied liability for the boy’s condition for the past eight years.
The family was not deterred and lodged a personal injury claim against the trust. During the case, the Trust admitted medical negligence and the judge ordered it to pay annual payments of £100,000 until the boy reaches the age of 18 at which time the payment is to increase to an annual sum of £185,000.
The boy will need full-time care for the rest of his life as his limbs are badly affected and his intellectual capacity severely impaired. His father said that whilst the compensation cannot make up for what happened, it does mean that his son has the assurance of long-term financial assistance.
John Pollitt, the family’s medical negligence solicitor, explained that the boy’s birth was prolonged during which time an abnormal heartbeat was detected. The hospital staff decided to give the mother a drug to speed up the birth but that increased the stress the baby was subjected to, depriving him of the supply of oxygen and blood to his brain.