Boyes Turner’s neonatal brain injury specialists secured a £3.6 million settlement for a child who suffered a brain injury and cerebral palsy as a result of delayed treatment of neonatal meningitis.Meningitis occurs when the protective ‘meninges’ which surround the brain become inflamed in response to infection. Newborn babies may have been exposed to bacteria, such as group B strep (GBS), from maternal infection in pregnancy or during their birth, causing them to suffer ‘early-onset’ neonatal infection. Newborn babies are at risk of serious injury from these infections as their immune systems are undeveloped. This means that any newborn baby showing signs of infection must be treated urgently with antibiotics to prevent the infection causing permanent brain injury. In this case, the defendant hospital’s obstetric and neonatal staff negligently failed to recognise that the newborn baby was showing signs of infection which needed treatment with antibiotics. The delay in treatment caused the baby to suffer a severe brain injury and lifelong disability from cerebral palsy.We helped our client’s family make a claim for compensation from the defendant hospital. They admitted that their staff’s negligent failure to diagnose and treat our client’s infection caused his brain injury and disability from cerebral palsy.We secured a substantial interim (advance) payment which helped the family pay for care and buy and adapt a house that was suitable for their child’s disability, whilst we worked with our experts to assess our client’s long-term needs, so that we could value the claim. The case settled for an agreed sum of £3.6 million, which was approved by the court. Read more about this case and others on our cerebral palsy claims website here.If you are caring for a child or young adult with cerebral palsy or neurological injury and would like to talk to one of our specialist solicitors, free and confidentially, to find out more about making a medical negligence claim, contact us by email at cerebralpalsy@boyesturner.com.
