Teenager awarded £20m NHS payout

An 18-year-old girl has been awarded almost £20 million in compensation in what is believed to be a record payout by the NHS.

The teenager suffered catastrophic brain injuries after being starved of oxygen as a baby when doctors failed to properly ventilate her. The girl, who cannot be named, developed complications at five months of age following an operation to correct a malformed oesophagus.

She suffered a respiratory arrest at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff and “turned blue” after being starved of oxygen.

Last month a judge agreed doctors failed to adequately ventilate the girl before and after her respiratory arrest in February 2000.

The girl was awarded £2.1m as a lump sum, with annual payments of £203,000 for the rest of her life. Taking into account her life expectancy, the total settlement has been valued at £19,774,265.

The figure would be the highestcompensationpayout by the NHS, with the previous record settlement being a £19,410,417 payout in May. The mother of the girl, who has cared for her since the treatment, said: “I had my daughter snatched away from me. From that moment, she changed forever.”