Court awards €2.5 million to boy with ‘worst cerebral palsy’ seen

A severely disabled child with cerebral palsy has secured some €2.5m total payments so far under a settlement of proceedings over his birth at the National Maternity Hospital.

In approving the latest €1.67m payment for the seven year old boy, described as "extremely ill", the president of the High Court Mr Justice Peter Kelly said it is regrettable there was no State funding for building hospices for children.

Having chaired a hospice for some years, he was aware they provide a service of “great value” to families.

The child’s parents initially received considerable respite from the Laura Lynn children’s hospice but that is down to 15 days a year due to pressures on the hospice’s services from families in a similar position, he was told.

Noting both parents have given up their careers to care for their son at home and have not left Ireland since he was born, the judge said he wanted to pay tribute to and thank them on their son’s behalf.

It was an “extraordinary experience” and “restores faith in humanity” to see the sacrifices people are prepared to make, he said.

The boy was made a ward of court after his case over alleged negligence in the circumstances of his birth at the NMH in July 2010 settled last year with an interim payment of almost €800,000.

The case settled on the basis of an agreed liability finding of 70/30 in favour of the child.

The €1.67 million payment approved on Tuesday is to meet the boy’s care needs over the next three years after which his future needs will be assessed.

Denis McCullough SC, for the boy, said there was a “considerable issue” on liability and some evidence, including from his side’s obstetric experts, meant it was not possible to say whether damage suffered by the child in utero could have been suffered before his mother got to the hospital.

There were circumstances surrounding the mother’s labour in the hospital that seemed to indicate that was not the case but there was “considerable doubt”, he said.

The child was born in a seriously damaged condition and is severely disabled with cerebral palsy, microcephaly and uncontrolled epilepsy. The hospital’s paediatric neurologist had described his as the worst case of cerebral palsy she had ever seen.

The boy lives at home with his parents and younger sibling, is totally dependent on nurses and his parents for 24 hour care, is confined to a wheelchair and fed through a tube. He is myopic and was non verbal up to recently when he has begun to babble, regarded as a “breakthrough”.

The boy’s mother, who showed the judge photos of the child and outlined a normal day in his life, said no amount of money can change her son’s life or take away his daily struggles for survival but it can give him “a better quality of life that he truly deserves”.

The parents believe technology is the way forward for him and hope in time he will “find his own voice”. “We all adore him very much.”

The family have experienced a long and emotional journey and hope no child will have to wait for the support they deserve, she said.

Mr Justice Kelly, approving the settlement, said he would be open to approving a payment out for a new home for the family as their existing home is “materially substandard” to the child’s needs.