Howard Elgot and Abigail Telford appear in approval of compensation settlement worth £23.7m in cerebral palsy birth injury case
Howard Elgot and Abigail Telford have secured damages worth almost £24m for a 20-year-old who was born with Cerebral Palsy arising from negligent treatment provided to his mother during her pregnancy.
Howard and Abigail were instructed by Chris Moore of Hudgell Solicitors.
Liability was established after a hard fought liability trial HTR v Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust [2021] EWHC 3228 (QB).
The settlement was approved by Foster J this week. The settlement meant a further trial, listed for 10 days to commence this week, did not go ahead.
Award will ‘cover cost of lifelong care and support’
The settlement, which includes a lump sum award of £7.8m and annual payments for the rest of the man’s life, is to be used to fund a purpose-built home for the 20-year-old and his family, with dedicated space for live-in carers and specialist facilities and equipment, including a hydrotherapy pool and a motorhome for holiday travel.
Case centred on delay in treatment
The case had centred on the care provided to the boy’s mother in 2004 when she was 37 weeks pregnant, and the concerns she had raised at an antenatal clinic about a reduction in movements of her baby.
It was alleged that an obstetrician reassured her that all was fine following a scan. This meant she felt relaxed about continued reduced fetal movements, and only returned to the hospital four days later when movements seemed to have ceased.
Her son was born at the City Hospital in Nottingham having suffered a brain injury due to chronic partial hypoxia. He was left severely disabled and in need of 24-hour care.
The Trust denied that an obstetrician had carried out the scan at the antenatal clinic and denied that the mother had raised concerns about reduced movement.
At the liability trial in 2021, the Judge said he was satisfied the obstetrician had undertaken the scan at the clinic on the day and that he believed the boy’s mother’s account was correct as to what took place.
Mother thanks legal team for ‘complete dedication to family’
The mother of the 20-year-old, who cannot be named due to an anonymity order, thanked her legal team of Chris Moore of Hudgell Solicitors and her Barristers, Howard Elgot and Abigail Telford of Parklane Plowden Chambers, for always fighting for her son.
She had previously spoken about how it took the family 14 years to get funding for a downstairs bedroom to be built in their current home, which still lacks specialist facilities, and how, despite their ‘complete unconditional love’, caring 24 hours a day for their son had been ‘draining’. She said:
“Our son needs 24 hour care which of course, throughout his life, myself, my husband and other family members have provided, but this is something we can’t do forever, so that is why this is so important.
It has taken us 12 years to reach this day, the day where we can really start to plan for the rest of our son’s life with some certainty and security.
It needed us to endure years of denials from the Trust, a trial in court where I was basically accused of not telling the truth, and then a three year wait to secure this final settlement.
I have to thank my legal team for never giving up, and for never forgetting that this was about giving my son the best possible future life. I feel that together, we’ve got a result which will do that, and that is all we have been fighting for.
Given what we have been though, I’d say to any other parent to get legal advice immediately if you have a child born with a brain injury and you’ve got suspicions things weren’t right. It’s a shame that people don’t admit mistakes when so much is at stake for a family. It impacts on the entire family every day, for the rest of their lives.
I know people will see the value of the potential final settlement and think it is a lot of money, but this will be money to provide the care our son needs, helping us give him the most comfortable life now, and crucially ensuring he has 24 hour care when we are not around in the future.”
External coverage of the proceedings can be accessed here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyg9nvgnj2o
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1966205/nottingham-hospital-family-nhs-payout-baby
https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/family-receive-up-23m-nhs-9656172
