CNZ -v- Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust: $45million settlement for claimant

Boyes Turner’s cerebral palsy solicitors have secured a $45 million* settlement for the claimant in CNZ -v- Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust.

Our client has severe disability from cerebral palsy caused by an HIE birth injury caused by negligent maternity care at the defendant’s hospital. Liability for our client’s UK-based birth injury was established at trial before Mr Justice Ritchie. The $45 million* settlement makes provision for her lifelong, extensive care in New Zealand where the young woman now lives with her family.

Mother’s requests for caesarean section were negligently refused

Our client’s mother had a fear of medical interventions during labour owing to her experiences in previous pregnancies. During her pregnancy with twins, her repeated requests for a caesarean section were dismissed, before induction of labour and then again during the delivery. After the first twin was delivered, there were delays in delivering the second twin (our client) and the CTG fetal heart monitor showed abnormalities in the fetal heart rate which indicated that the baby was suffering from fetal distress. Our client’s mother asked for a caesarean delivery of the second twin, but during the further delays before her birth, the baby suffered a profound, hypoxic injury to her brain.

Severe disability from cerebral palsy birth injury

As a result of her injury, our client is severely disabled, with mixed dystonic and spastic cerebral palsy. She is unable to walk but uses a powered wheelchair for mobility and is dependent on others for all of her daily activities and personal care. She has speech and language difficulties, affecting her communication, but has preserved intellect with subtle executive difficulties. She will need extensive help with care for the rest of her life, as well as case management and therapies, specialist equipment, assistive technology and adapted accommodation.

Success at trial with complex claim

Our client was already 20 years old when she asked us to help her claim compensation for her severe birth injury disability. Her parents had sought advice from other solicitors during her infancy but had been advised at that time (prior to key developments in the law) that they would be unlikely to succeed with a claim. 

We pursued the claim for our client and investigated her mother’s maternity care from 20 years earlier, which had to be judged against maternity standards and practice in the 1990s. This involved looking back at whether important, birth-related decisions had been made with the mother’s informed consent, as well as whether there had been negligent delays in taking action to deliver the hypoxic second twin, based on historic maternity standards and the mother’s right to make key decisions about her maternity care.

We pursued the case to a liability trial, where the judge, Mr Justice Ritchie, ruled that there had a negligent delay in performing caesarean delivery of the second twin by preparing for a vaginal birth, when the mother had exercised her right to make important decisions about her labour and her baby’s birth. He found that during the delays leading up to her birth, the second twin suffered a hypoxic brain injury, causing significant disability.

He concluded that but for the negligent delay our client would have avoided her injury.  He also decided that as the medical experts couldn’t say what functional difference was caused by each additional minute of hypoxia, every minute of acute, profound hypoxia during delayed delivery of a distressed unborn baby makes a material contribution, meaning that our client was entitled to 100% compensation for her disability. The defendant asked the court for permission to appeal the judgment, but later abandoned their appeal.

Settlement guarantees lifelong provision for cerebral palsy care in New Zealand

Our specialist birth injury solicitors are experienced in the valuation of complex, international, cerebral palsy claims and worked with UK-based and New Zealand-based experts to assess the cost of fully meeting our client’s long-term needs, and the financial and taxation implications of receiving and managing a substantial compensation award in New Zealand, to ensure that our client gains the full benefit from her compensation. Interim payments totalling £430,000 met our clients’ needs whilst we worked with her and her family and our experts to fully understand her care needs and value her claim.

Medical experts had initially advised that our client was capable of managing her own financial affairs, however, when safeguarding concerns around her care highlighted her financial vulnerability, we arranged for the appointment of a ‘property manager’ (the New Zealand equivalent of a Court of Protection deputy).

After the defendant failed to make a realistic settlement offer during RTM negotiations, they applied to the court for permission to challenge the discount rate that would be used in the calculation of our client’s compensation. The discount rate has a significant impact on the amount of compensation that is recovered for future costs. We successfully challenged their application, preventing a potential substantial reduction in our client’s compensation. The case concluded soon afterwards with a settlement which provides our client with a $20.5 million lump sum plus PPOs providing guaranteed, lifelong, index-linked, annual payments of $800,000pa to meet her extensive needs for care.

Our client’s privacy is protected by an anonymity order.

* capitalised equivalent

If your child has cerebral palsy or neurological disability as a result of medical negligence, or you have been contacted by HSSIB/MNSI or NHS Resolution, you can talk to a solicitor, free and confidentially, for advice about how to respond or make a claim by contacting us.