A FORMER star trainee RAF fighter pilot has been awarded £4.48m in damages for hospital treatment which left him with horrific brain damage.

The High Court in London heard earlier this month how Christopher Lynham, 27, from Hampshire, had won the sword of honour as best cadet in his year at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire and was regarded as "an outstanding young man" of exceptional ability.

The court was told oxygen starvation occurred after Mr Lynham's heart stopped for up to 15 minutes during surgery at Lancaster Royal Infirmary in May 1998 following a motorbike accident. He was left so disabled he needs 24-hour care.

Through his father, Oxford graduate Mr Lynham sued Morecambe Bay Hospitals NHS Trust, who admitted liability for the tragedy.

Yesterday judge Mr Justice Garland awarded him £4.48m and ordered that the hospital trust should pay his legal costs.

The judge praised Mr Lynham as "an unusually talented young man both academically and physically."

At Oxford he won the University Boxer of the Year award, represented his college's rugby team and was a talented helmsman who captained the Oxford Yacht Club in 1995 besides winning the world silver medal for match racing in the United States.

In the RAF his superiors rated him as a "superb man with above average potential as an officer and a pilot." The judge said Christopher would probably have stayed in the RAF until retirement age.

But he added that Mr Lynham now suffered from almost complete amnesia, he was wholly lacking in motivation and, left alone, he would remain inert. There was no dispute that he was totally incapable of looking after himself.

Mr Lynham is currently awaiting transfer to a new home in Southampton. His brother Adrian, who lives in Brook Road, Fair Oak, is planning to help care for him.