€18m for boy left brain-damaged
A BOY who was severely brain damaged at birth has received a record €17.8million in compensation.
Tadgh Costello’s parents, Gerard and Mary, said their son had paid the ultimate price for mistakes made at Kerry General Hospital in May 2006, including a two-hour delay in what should have been an emergency delivery.
And they called for the Government to investigate hospital safety records to prevent a repeat of such tragic errors.
Yesterday, High Court president Judge Peter Kelly approved a final payment of €15million to be paid into court for the future care and needs of ten-year-old Tadgh, from Killorglin, Co. Kerry.
It follows an interim payment of €2.8million made in March 2015 when the HSE admitted negligence and apologised to the family. It is the highest payment of damages ever in such cases.
In court on that occasion, Mary Costello had confirmed that a consultant involved in the case had, after the birth, showed his remorse and cried in a private meeting with herself and her husband Gerard.
But the HSE had denied liability for Tadgh’s injuries for almost nine years, which Mrs Costello said had caused the family intense suffering. ‘We were trying to deal with the grief of what had happened and for them not to admit liability added insult to injury,’ she said at the earlier hearing.
The court heard how the medical team dealing with Mrs Costello decided an emergency caesarean section was needed to deliver Tadgh, but it did not begin for over an hour. His birth was ultimately delayed by two hours.
Tadgh suffered brain damage as a result.
He is now dependent on a wheelchair, cannot speak, and has medical difficulties including cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
Yesterday, Mrs Costello, a teacher, told the court the interim payment had improved Tadgh’s quality of life and health. She said he was extremely sociable and endearing, and enjoyed the company of other children at his national school, where he has a private teacher.
She described him as ‘cute, clever and observant’, but she said the scale of the settlement reflected the gravity of his day to day needs.
Judge Kelly approved the lump sum settlement offer.
Afterwards a statement from Mr and Mrs Costello said: ‘We would dearly love to give every penny of this back, if somehow Tadgh could magically do normal things like walk or talk or play football with his brothers and sisters.
‘Sadly for us this can never be. These are the cards we were dealt and Tadgh is the one who pays the ultimate price.’
‘We’d love for him to walk and talk’