£13m compensation recovered for birth injury claim against Kingston Hospital

Mark Bowman and Henry Kirwan acted for Hunter and his family following his birth at Kingston Hospital in January 2017. Due to mismanagement of his mother's labour, Hunter suffers from permanent brain damage, presenting as dystonic quadriplegic cerebral palsy. Hunter suffers from drug resistant epilepsy and global developmental delay. He is gastrostomy fed and has severe learning difficulties.

Once instructed, the legal team set about proving negligent treatment in the lead up to and immediately following his birth. Court proceedings were served on Kingston Hospital in 2020. The hospital admitted negligently mismanaging the amount of Syntocinon given to Hunter's mother during labour, but denied that it made any difference to the outcome. They did admit a negligent delay in recognising that Hunter required an urgent blood transfusion following his birth and that this made a material contribution to his brain injury.

Judgment was entered in Hunter's favour in 2021 and an interim payment enabled Hunter's family to move into rental accommodation and pay for private carers.

Over the next two years, a near full package of two carers 24/7 were recruited to help the family look after Hunter and numerous experts were instructed to assess his lifelong needs. Interim payments of more than £1m were received to fund ongoing therapies and assistance.

The parties were unable to reach an agreement on compensation for Hunter, including arguing over life expectancy, the cost of the private care regime and his future accommodation needs. After further negotiations, agreement was eventually reached whereby Hunter will receive a one off payment of £6m plus annual payments of £366,000 until age 19 and then £410,000 for the rest of his life, irrespective of the predicted life expectancy. The Defendant also agreed to pay for any school fees, under certain conditions.

At the end of the claim Hunter's parents said:

'Fieldfisher has been excellent throughout this whole experience. Mark Bowman is an exceptional solicitor. Not only does he go above and beyond professionally, he is a man of incredible integrity, compassion and grace.

'The work ethic from Mark and his team is beyond compare; they have gone so far beyond our expectations of what we thought a solicitor would do for us. We feel incredibly fortunate to have had Mark as our solicitor and supporter, whilst navigating such a difficult time.'

Contact us

For further information about cerebral palsy claims and birth injury claims, please call Mark Bowman on 03304606794 or email mark.bowman@fieldfisher.com.
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