A FAMILY whose daughter was brain-damaged at birth has been awarded £10 million after a 22-year battle for compensation. The woman has severe cerebral palsy due to oxygen starvation during her birth at the Queen's Medical Centre. (Tuesday, May 14)
Isn't it time that these organisations admitted when they are wrong and did the decent thing instead of, in this case, paying lawyers for 22 years. What has that cost on top of the £10 million?
EveREDy
This is a difficult one. Of course this family should have received compensation but the litigation culture in which we live is draining resources from an already stretched NHS. The NHS spent £1.2 billion pounds last year on compensation claims. That is taxpayers' money that was intended for use on patient care.
Ted_Notts
The family of this young lady will have had 22 years of heartache and despair and more to come. The young lady herself suffers an unimaginable amount of frustration daily and will throughout her life. I speak from experience and no amount of compensation will help with the pressure put on this family.
sicofit
No amount of money can undo what happened to this young lady and her family, all the money does is ease the financial struggle that families with disabled children live with. I know from experience what a struggle it is to bring this sort of court action to fruition and the pain the whole family goes through, the medical establishment never make these things easy to fight due to the closing of ranks. My heart goes out to the family and their daughter.
Pacalladine1
My concerns are with the fact it took 22 years for the case to be settled, why don't people just sit down first and try to find an amicable solution as the legal costs alone must be horrific.
smshogun
Surely, the culture is actually be based on the notion that accidents will always happen, and litigation exists to try to compensate those that it happens to, to make sure that they have whatever quality of life is possible. I am in no position to judge the whole £1.2 billion, but in this case it seems money legitimately spent. Would you rather the NHS could walk away from its mistakes with an "accidents will happen" defence?
FormerlyW