Brain damage victim secures compensation
Added (2009-Feb-10)
A boy who sustained brain damage as result of mistakes made prior to his birth has been awarded a payout of £4.4 million.
Macauley Joyce suffers from spastic cerebral palsy, which causes some of the muscles in the body to become tight, stiff and weak and makes control of movement difficult.
He also has acute learning difficulties, the Newbury Weekly News Group reports.
His family argued that community midwife Dr Jonathan Hayward should have referred his mother, Susan Joyce, to hospital earlier.
She was 26 weeks pregnant when she began suffering from severe pre-eclampsia.
Ms Joyce was not referred to hospital for another week. She subsequently underwent an emergency caesarean section.
According to the family's legal team, had she been referred to hospital more quickly, signs of foetal distress would have been detected earlier and medics would have intervened before Macauley suffered oxygen starvation.
Commenting on the case, Ms Joyce said: "I would like to thank Macauley's legal team for all their hard work and commitment during the case and to thank Macauley for not giving up on life 12 years ago. He has made us so much stronger."
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