£18,000,000 Settlement
Caleb, from Birmingham, aged 12, was successfully represented by Pryers Solicitors in a cerebral palsy claim.
Caleb’s mother went into labour in October 2006. Caleb was subjected to increasing levels of oxygen starvation. Caleb’s CTG Trace, which measures a baby’s wellbeing and is used to identify the possibility of hypoxia of the baby during labour, was shown to be pathological. Despite this, Caleb’s mother was induced using a syntocinon infusion at 9:12 pm, which reduced Caleb’s ability to withstand escalating hypoxia.
Caleb was not successfully delivered for another 27 hours. As a consequence of the delay, Caleb sustained hypoxic ischaemic brain injury, resulting in Caleb suffering from a disorder of fine and gross motor activities, cognitive and behavioural difficulties, and epilepsy.
In the claim, it was alleged that there was a failure by the staff to respond to the CTG trace and undertake an FBS and that if the appropriate care had been provided, an emergency C-section should have been performed by 22:30 hours.
Neil Fearn, of Pryers Solicitors, was instructed in 2011 and was able to obtain evidence from a Neuroradiologist, Paediatric Neurologist and Obstetric expert supporting Caleb’s claim. The defendant made offers in 2015, and 2016, but the claim was ultimately settled in 2018 prior to the pre-trial review for £18m made up of a lump sum of £4.5m, and periodical payments up to the age of 19 of £95,400, from 19-25 of £84k and from 25 for life of £128k.
