£4m payout for six-year-old girl

A six-year-old Kidderminster girl has been awarded a £4 million compensation payout after complications during her birth left her severely disabled.

Holly Nixon was left brain damaged after being starved of oxygen at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in 2003.

She has quadriplegic cerebral palsy, cannot get around by herself and has been left with only limited speech and impaired vision.

Her parents, Emma and Carl, launched a bid for compensation from the hospital's managers Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, arguing that it was responsible for Holly's injuries during her birth.

The trust accepted liability to pay and, after out-of-court negotiations, agreed a £2m lump sum payout, with additional annual payments to fund her care for as long as she lives.

The package, approved by Judge Robin Spencer QC, is expected to be worth more than £4m if Holly lives as long as experts believe she will.

Speaking after the hearing Mr Nixon, whose wife had a baby, Lilly, 11 days ago, said: "Holly is a wonderful little girl and she is loved very much by all who know her.

"However, by now she should be running around with her friends and starting music or dancing classes."

"We have been robbed of this and so many other countless opportunities that she should have had during her life."

At the High Court, Paul Rees QC, for the NHS Trust, said it was important that the health service offered an "unreserved apology" to Holly and her parents in open court.