£5.5 million compensation for disabled teenager after hospital admits failures at birth

Expert birth injury solicitors

17/10/2007

A teenager from West Bromwich is to be awarded a compensation package of nearly £5.5 million after a series of failures during his birth left him severely disabled.

16-year-old Daniel Kay has quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy after he was deprived of oxygen when doctors failed to properly manage his breathing, leading to Daniel suffering a circulatory collapse when he was just one day old.

Today's settlement, which is due to be approved in the High Court, Birmingham, follows an earlier admission of liability by Birmingham and the Black Country Strategic Health Authority (now West Midlands Strategic Health Authority).

Daniel was born at Sandwell Hospital on 23rd July 1991 more than two weeks overdue. One week earlier on 17th July, his mother, Angela, had been admitted to hospital for an induction of labour but was sent home again two days later, despite having been given four doses of the labour inducing drug, Prostaglandin.

Daniel was finally born six days later on 23rd July when Mrs Kay went into natural labour. However, during the delivery Daniel became distressed and passed meconium(1), which he then inhaled into his lungs; a condition known as Meconium Aspiration Syndrome (MAS).

He was immediately taken to the neonatal unit but medics could not fully clear the airway and as a result his oxygen levels slowly began to drop. The paediatrician caring for him chose to treat him in a 'head-box' rather than ventilating him, which can be a risky strategy unless the baby is very closely monitored.

Daniel, however, was not closely monitored and his condition continued to deteriorate still further. He became distressed and blue but doctors did not intervene and, incredibly, thought that he may simply have been hungry and instead attempted to sedate him. An independent medical expert has stated that at this point Daniel's care at the hospital "went from sub-standard to abysmal."

At 5.45am on 25th July, 30 hours after he was born, Daniel suffered a circulatory collapse at which time he was starved of oxygen for between 10 and 25 minutes, causing permanent and significant damage to his brain.

Daniel has been left with quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy. He is totally dependent upon a wheelchair for mobility and requires 24-hour care. Notwithstanding his physical disabilities he is mentally extremely bright and has excelled academically.

Speaking about the family's decision to take legal action, Daniel's father, Tony Kay explained: "The hospital had always reassured us that Daniel's condition was 'just one of those things' and although we believed the doctors' version of events we thought we owed it to Daniel to find out for certain, as we knew one day he would start to ask questions.

Support from SCOPE

"We approached the cerebral palsy charity, SCOPE, who were very supportive. They helped us obtain Daniel's medical notes and suggested we should look into things more deeply. They referred us to Irwin Mitchell who managed to secure Legal Aid so that our case could be fully investigated. For almost ten years we had accepted the hospital's official story, so when the independent medical experts told us Daniel's condition was not due to natural causes but because of hospital failure we were all devastated. I think if we hadn't been so persistent in our quest for answers, we would never have uncovered the truth."

Lindsay Gibb, a solicitor with the Birmingham office of national law firm, Irwin Mitchell, represented the family. She said: "Sadly we deal with a significant number of cerebral palsy cases which have occurred as a result of medical failures.

"However, what makes Daniel's case particularly tragic is the fact that the hospital failed on not one but two occasions. Independent medical experts have confirmed that Angela Kay should never have been discharged from hospital once labour was induced and should instead have had a caesarean section. If this had taken place, Daniel would not have suffered MAS and would have been born perfectly healthy.

"When he was finally delivered on 23rd July, and diagnosed with MAS he should have been properly intubated and ventilated when in the neonatal unit. If this had happened the collapse would never have occurred and Daniel's brain damage could have been entirely prevented."

Birth injury settlement

Today's settlement of £5.48 million consists of a £2 million lump sum and £130,000 annual payments that will provide for Daniel's future needs including 24 hour care. Following an earlier full admission of liability by the Trust, a £615,000 interim payment has enabled the Kay family to purchase a specially adapted bungalow and specialist equipment to help with Daniel's mobility.

Mrs Angela Kay commented: "Whilst I'm still very angry about the mistakes that led to Daniel's condition, we now have to look to the future. We're not a family who live in the past and we cannot turn back the clock, as much as we would like to.

"We are just relieved that this settlement will allow Daniel to be cared for in the way he needs, for the rest of his life."

She added: "We really couldn't ask for a more wonderful son. His smile just lights up the room and he is such a popular lad who is fortunate to have a large circle of friends. Despite his physical limitations he has done very well academically at school and we were so proud of him when he recently gained 8 GCSEs. Like most teenagers he loves computer games and soccer. He is a season ticket holder with West Bromwich Albion and also plays wheelchair football for WBA in the power chair league."