Massive pay-out for boy paralysed at birth

The amount of damages paid out by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has not been revealed, but due to the level of the original claim it is believed it could have set a new Scottish record.

The child, who has not been named, needs 24-hour care for the rest of his life, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds each year.

Lord Stewart, whose observations were published yesterday by the Scottish Court Service, said the boy in the Court of Session case had been left paralysed from the head down after suffering "catastrophic neurological trauma" at birth.

He added: "During delivery assisted by Keilland's forceps there was a compression-torsion injury of his spinal cord at the highest level.

"The claimant's brain was spared, but he is paralysed from the head down. He cannot breathe spontaneously. He requires ventilatory support with 24-hour care and supervision. Care costs are easily the biggest head of claim."

The case was settled in February but only came to light after the judge was asked to issue a legal opinion on how the settlement was reached.

The highest known medical negligence payout in Scotland was 5.25m to the parents of another boy left severely disabled at birth by a hospital blunder.

Lord Stewart decided that part of the settlement should be in the form of periodical payments for the duration of the boy's life.

He said this would avoid the problem of a lump sum either being too much or too little.

He said: "The cost of 24-hour care for someone with the claimant's needs is, at present values, hundreds of thousands of pounds a year for life.

"Life expectancy is therefore central to the quantification of damages."

Lord Stewart said life expectancy predictions made by experts for both sides were often years apart and that the differences translated into lump sums could amount to millions of pounds.

"Consequently," he said, "lump sum awards are almost inevitably going to be too little or too much. Either the patient outlives the award and is left without care, or the patient pre-deceases and the family receives a windfall, probably at taxpayers' expense in medical cases."

A spokeswoman from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: "An out of court settlement has now been reached regarding this tragic case.

"Whilst we are unable to comment on the detail of this we can confirm that the settlement was not in the order of that originally sought by the claimant.

"It was agreed that an initial lump sum would be paid to the claimant together with yearly payments thereafter."

Margaret Watt, chairwoman of the Scotland Patients' Association, said that out-of-court settlements meant the full details did not emerge. "We can only hope and pray that health professionals learn form their mistakes."

According to a freedom of information request by The Scotsman, the NHS in Scotland paid out almost 50m in compensation in 2009.