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Darbys Solicitors LLP Recovers Millions in Cerebral Palsy Medical Negligence Compensation Claim


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A ten-year-old with severe cerebral palsy has been awarded close to £8 million in compensation to provide for his care needs for the rest of his life, with the help of Darbys Solicitors LLP.

TBE - his name abbreviated to protect his and his family’s privacy - was born at The Royal Berkshire Hospital.

His mother - SB - who had delivered her first child two years earlier by caesarean section, agreed with her doctor that she would attempt vaginal delivery of TBE. This would be reconsidered if the baby’s heart rate started to slow abnormally.

From the outset of labour, the cardiotocography (CTG) recording indicated a decelerating heart rate, without a return to the original baseline. This was neither recognised by the midwife nor reviewed by the obstetrician.

The CTG monitoring was then discontinued for 20 minutes to allow transfer to the delivery suite. When the monitoring was resumed, it showed deep early decelerations in the baby’s heart rate with increasingly delayed returns to the baseline heart rate, indicating foetal distress.

As a result, TBE was born in a very poor condition, requiring intubation, and was transferred to the hospital’s neonatal unit, where he began to suffer from seizures.

He was subsequently diagnosed with dyskinetic quadriplegic cerebral palsy.

TBE is now severely disabled, having lost all useful function of his limbs, and is unable to speak, communicating with facial gestures and through communication aids. He is fed via a gastrostomy.

Helen Niebuhr, medical negligence specialist at Darbys Solicitors LLP, acted on behalf of TBE and brought the medical negligence case to court, where evidence showed there was a negligent delay in TBE’s delivery. This caused him to suffer an avoidable deprivation of oxygen and sustain a severe hypoxic ischaemic brain injury.

Following the claim, the courts yesterday approved a settlement award worth £7.85 million. The Royal Berkshire NHS Trust will make a lump sum payment of £3.66 million, in addition to annual payments of £140,000 to age 19 and £225,000 from age 19 for the rest of his life. The compensation will cover 24 hour care, equipment, therapies, accommodation and hydrotherapy.

Commenting on the successful compensation claim, Ms Niebuhr said: “The damages awarded to TBE will be in trust to pay for his care and equipment, and everything else he needs, for the rest of his life, but it will never truly compensate for the devastating injury caused to him at birth or enable him to live the life he should have had.”

For information and advice relating to birth injury and cerebral palsy compensation claims, visit Darbys Solicitors LLP’s dedicated medical negligence website: http://www.darbysmedicalnegligence.co.uk



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 medical negligence
 clinical negligence
 cerebral palsy claims
 birth injury compensation
 compensation claims


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