Our expert Medical Negligence team secured a multi-million pound settlement for a young woman who was born with cerebral palsy after a mismanaged delivery.
Our client was born at St James’ Hospital in Leeds in 1995. Her mother underwent a difficult labour and there were complications with the birth. The failure of the staff to deliver the baby urgently by C-section would have severe consequences for the rest of her life.
Her brain was starved of oxygen during the delivery and as a result she was born with cerebral palsy. At 21 years old, she still requires constant care and cannot look after herself.
The brain damage has given our client severe learning difficulties and left her prone to anxiety and memory loss. She cannot accurately judge distances and suffers poor depth perception, meaning she often requires help walking. Simple actions such as putting in a key in a lock are impossible for her, as she does not have the physical ability to perform delicate or specialised tasks, and also has a pronounced weakness on her left side. Her body is effectively without any kind of warning system as she has no sensitivity to pain or temperature, meaning she can hurt herself without realising.
Until we took on the case, her parents were her sole carers. We secured interim payments to allow them to access support and rehabilitative therapies for their daughter. They first approached us when she was a child, but were reluctant to subject her at such a young age to the MRI scan necessary to assess the extent of her injuries. When she was a bit older, we were able to take up her case and set about helping the family get the answers they needed.
Our expert medical negligence team were able to establish that the brain damage was a result of a mismanaged delivery, and that if a caesarean section had been performed our client would not have suffered the injuries that she did.
We secured a seven figure settlement allowing for lifelong annual payments. Our client now has care from support workers, as well as rehabilitative support from a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, and speech and language therapist. She is able to access the best equipment and the best standard of care to help her enjoy life as fully as possible, and the family has been able to buy a property more suitable for her needs, which is being adapted further.
She was represented by specialist medical negligence solicitor Sarah Coles, who said of the case: “We’re very pleased to have secured this settlement for our client. For years her family have needed answers as to why she suffered such serious brain damage at birth – now we’ve been able to show that it was due to a mismanaged delivery, they can begin to move on with their lives. This compensation enables them to access the very best care for their daughter, and gives them peace of mind that she will always be provided for.”
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