‘Millions’ for birth blunder

12:00pm Friday 19th January 2007

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A HAMPSHIRE boy is set for a multi-million pound damages pay-out after a judge ruled a hospital doctor botched his delivery.

Luke Purver, nine, faces a lifetime of acute disability following his birth at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester in 1997.

The High Court heard that a now-Southampton obstetrician's negligence in the minutes before his birth led to the boy suffering massive brain damage causing dystonic cerebral palsy.

Adam Moors, now a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology at Southampton's Princess Anne Hospital, crucially delayed a caesarean delivery by four minutes.

Although Luke's intellect was undamaged he will need physical help for the rest of his life. He suffers grave balance and co-ordination problems and has to use sign language as his main means of communication, the court heard.

Yesterday, Judge David Foskett QC guaranteed Luke millions of pounds in compensation after ruling that his injuries were the result of the negligence by Mr Moors. Despite being an "extremely competent" doctor, praised by colleagues and who has never before been accused of negligence, the judge said Mr Moors had made a "wrong judgement" when he delayed birth by making a final attempt at forceps delivery.

The delay meant Luke suffered oxygen starvation in the womb and a "total circulatory collapse". Had Mr Moors abandoned his attempts at a forceps delivery just a few minutes earlier, the judge said the baby would have escaped permanent brain damage. Through his mother, Sally Miller, 32, of The Crescent, Hurstbourne Tarrant, Andover, Luke sued the Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust.

Although the amount of his damages has yet to be finally assessed, similar claims have recently been valued by the courts at between £4 and £8m.

Judge Foskett said it was important not to judge Mr Moors, then a senior registrar at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, "upon all the wisdom that hindsight gives".

Mr Moors admitted he was "not aware of the implications of the ten-minute rule" which states that babies showing heart decelerations in the womb should be delivered within ten minutes.

Mrs Miller said after the hearing: "We always knew there had been a mistake, but almost from the beginning we were fobbed off with weak excuses."