Maternity mistakes by Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust result in settlement for an adult born with the most severe category of cerebral palsy.
HXZ was born in 1998 at the Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital without a detectable heart rate and not breathing for herself, requiring immediate resuscitation. A delayed decision to deliver and then act upon this led to a severe brain injury following oxygen starvation. HXZ cannot live independently and needs significant home adaptations to enable assistance to be provided to her by a care team.
CL Medilaw were approached by HXZ’s family for a 2nd opinion after their case was dropped by another law firm.
Kay Taylor, Partner and Emily Markey, Associate, both specialise in birth injury and cerebral palsy cases. They pursued a claim for damages against the Trust. Their investigations showed that the failure to act following evidence of fetal distress and the subsequent delay in delivering HXZ once a decision had been made led to a serious brain injury.
They secured a liability settlement for HXZ enabling the family to secure funding so they can rent a home large enough to accommodate a team of day and night-time carers, a designated therapy space and all equipment needed by HXZ to improve her quality of life immediately and ahead of the final settlement of the claim.
Kay Taylor commented:
“We reviewed the previous investigation for the family and decided that a different approach with the right experts onboard was needed. We did everything we could to fast track the process for the family who had been coping with limited help for many years.
Persevering with the claim has led to financial security for the family and access to support that will dramatically change their lives.”
