Oxygen starvation claim - 1.25m compensation for birth injury
23 year old Tom suffers from a severe form of short term memory impairment caused by a likely starvation of oxygen during his birth. This has left him unable to organise his life and day to day activities without assistance and he is also financially dependent.
Tom’s case was against the Oxford hospital responsible for his birth, claiming that his disability resulted from mistakes made by the medical and midwifery staff at that time. Whilst that allegation has not been admitted by the hospital, it has agreed to pay Tom £1.25m in settlement of his medical negligence claim against them. The compensation for oxygen starvation will be administered by the Court of Protection on his behalf.
Tom’s parents have commented:
‘Tom is a highly intelligent young man whose life has been profoundly affected by the disabling effect of his memory deficit. Whilst no amount of money can compensate Tom for this impairment which cuts across all of his daily activities, the settlement will help to improve the quality of his future life by allowing Tom to do some of the things that others take for granted.
On Tom’s behalf we would like to thank all our legal team, family, friends and colleagues for their support and guidance to us over an extremely testing last six years.’
Adrian Desmond (medical negligence lawyer - specialising in birth injury compensation) comments:
‘This was a most unusual case for a number of reasons. The events in question happened a long time ago and involved an allegation of very specific and limited damage to structures in his brain whilst leaving the centres of his brain responsible for his movement and general intelligence unaffected. The claim was only launched in 2005 as before then it had been assumed that his difficult birth could not have been responsible for such an unusual pattern of injury. I am not aware of any settlement or trial verdict with similar facts.
I am delighted for Tom and his very caring family that his claim has now been concluded and that the hospital have agreed to pay him substantial compensation. This will help him enormously to overcome the distressing incapacity that he has and to rehabilitate him for his future.
I pay tribute to the love, energy and great determination of Tom’s parents in bringing this claim which has been a very difficult and harrowing one to bring to justice including a lengthy and exhausting trial process in January this year.’
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