UK – Boy 14 damaged by his medical birth
Boy,14, £2.6m for injuries suffered at birth Jul 18 2007
A 14-YEAR-OLD boy left facing a lifetime of catastrophic disability by injuries suffered during his birth has won a £2.6 million compensation deal at London’s High Court.
Callum Halliday, of Hunter’s Chase, South Godstone, was born by Caesarean section at East Surrey Hospital, Redhill, in May 1993.
But oxygen starvation has left him a victim of quadriplegic cerebral palsy, confined to a wheelchair and totally dependent on others for all his care needs.
His legal team argued that, had it not been for a negligent delay in his delivery, Callum would have escaped serious injury.
Through his mother Linda, Callum sued the hospital’s managers,Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, who agreed to settle his case for £2.6 million.
The settlement was reached without any admission of liability by the NHS Trust.
Announcing the deal on July 10, Callum’s QC, Simon Taylor, said the decision had been taken to do a deal as there would have been a real risk, had there been a contested trial and the trust found blameless, that Callum would have come away with “absolutely nothing”.
Defence counsel Ben Browne QC, emphasised that no fault by medics had been admitted, but expressed the trust’s “great regret” over Callum’s injuries.
He told Justice Silber: “Anyone reading the papers in this case is bound to be struck by the enormous degree of affection and care shown to Callum by his parents and extended family.
“He has realised every bit of potential left to him, entirely thanks to the devoted care given to him by his family and we pay tribute to them for that.”
How touching that the medics have such “great regret” for this oxygen deprived boy. I wonder how his life would have been if his momma had stayed home and been taught some deep breathing exercises to use during her labor to ensure that her child received all the oxygen he needed during the birth process. And how would it have been if instead of being in a smelly, toxic hospital, perhaps given an epidural that was in fact what may have disrupted the proper flow of oxygen to that childs blood stream, if his mother had been enabled to labor comfortably at home away from drugs and machines???
The funky breathing patterns of the modern Lamaze Method of childbirth has also been implicated in oxygen deprivation for babies. When a mother hyperventilates during her birth, the child tends to panic in the womb because of the disruption in proper flows of oxygen to his body. Women need to be taught deep, quiet breathing for labor, as is taught in Bradley Method childbirth classes.
Jenny Hatch