£5.3 million payout for girl left needing 24-hour care after Russells Hall Hospital birth
The girl will also receive up to £260,000 per year after her brain was starved of oxygen during birth.
An eight-year-old girl has been awarded £5.3 million after suffering a devastating brain injury at birth.
The youngster suffered the injuries after apparent failures by medics at Russells Hall Hospital during her birth.
The girl was born at the hospital in 2010 but problems during her delivery meant that her brain was starved of oxygen.
She now has cerebral palsy affecting all four limbs, severe intellectual impairment, developmental delay and communication difficulties.
Her lawyer, Kashmir Uppal of Access Legal Solicitors, sued Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, which has accepted liability.
The trust has now agreed to pay her a lump sum of of £5.3 million.
She will also receive index-linked and tax-free payments to cover the enormous cost of the 24-hour care she will need for life.
Judge Richard Pearce told London’s High Court that those payments will start at £145,000 a year.
They will then rise to £175,000 a year, from the age of 11, and then to £260,000 a year once she is 19.
The judge said the settlement was in the girl’s best interests and he had ‘no hesitation’ in approving it.
Her barrister, William Latimer-Sayer QC, described her as a ‘very engaging little girl’ despite her disabilities.
Caroline Harrison QC publicly apologised on the trust’s behalf ‘for the failures of care which had such devastating consequences for the girl and her family’.
The barrister paid tribute to the care that the girl’s parents have ‘lavished upon their daughter’ and wished the family well for the future.
Judge Pearce said he was ‘constantly humbled’ by the ‘love and devotion’ shown by parents of gravely disabled children.
“Today is a day when that should be acknowledged, and I do so,” he concluded.
A spokesman for the trust declined to comment on the matter.
