The High Court has approved a €4.7m settlement, plus costs, for a young boy who suffered irreversible brain injuries due to the alleged failure to administer Vitamin K to him at his birth at the Bon Secours Hospital in Cork.
The settlement for Colm Daly, now aged 10, the youngest of six children, was made without admission of liability.
Through his mother Marie, Colm Daly of Southbury Road, Summerstown Estate, Glasheen, Cork, had sued Bon Secours Health System Ltd over alleged negligence in the circumstances of the child's birth at the hospital on 16 June 2000.
The court heard Colm's was a difficult birth as the umbilical cord had ruptured and had to be clamped. Midwives had to deal with that at about 5.20am, prior to an obstetrician's arrival.
It was alleged the hospital had created a note to the effect Vitamin K, necessary for blood clotting, was administered to Colm via injection at birth.
His mother and father claimed it was not.
The court was told babies are deficient in Vitamin K and thus susceptible to bleeding disorders but that risk can be avoided through Vitamin K injections at birth.
That was normal practice at the Bon Secours hospital at the time Colm was born, it was claimed.
Liam Reidy SC said Colm was a 'perfectly healthy baby' at birth but 30 days later, on 14 July 2000, as the family were on a weekend away, he began vomiting.
When he continued to be unwell, he was brought back to the hospital on 17 July.
It emerged a small blood vessel in the child's brain had burst, there was a bleed in the brain and blood continued to trickle over that weekend.
It later emerged there was no coagulation of his blood at all.
Colm was given a Vitamin K injection and his blood developed coagulation quality within eight hours, Mr Reidy said.
He was later operated on at another hospital but, it was claimed, the damage was already done before that.
Mr Reidy said the child was 'catastrophically injured' and has profound and lifelong intellectual and behaviour problems.
Colm also suffered uncontrollable epilepsy with hourly seizures, which drugs could not control but his parents brought it under control within 18 months by placing him on a very strict diet, on which he remains.
The side-effect is the child is always hungry, counsel said.
Because Colm is from a family of significant academic achievement, there was evidence, had he not suffered these injuries, he would have had a professional career, counsel added.
Due to his learning difficulties and challenging behaviour, an educational psychologist believed Colm would have no earning capacity.
Mr Reidy said Colm's parents Marie, a teacher, and Diarmaid, a psychiatric nurse, had had a 'very long journey' since being told by the hospital what happened to Colm was 'just one of those events'.
The parents never got 'a satisfactory answer' from consultants about the cause of Colm's injuries but eventually got the hospital notes of the birth, which stated Colm received a Vitamin K injection when they knew he had not, he said.
An expert in Bristol later told them Colm's disabilities were due to bleeding associated with the absence in his blood of Vitamin K, Mr Reidy said.
Susie Elliott, solicitor for Colm, had from 2003 to 2010 assembled a worldwide array of expert witnesses to testify Colm's injuries were due to Vitamin K deficiency but the hospital had advanced 'far-fetched' alternative theories not associated with any negligence on its part, counsel said.
An expert from Edinburgh Hospital had told the court, irrespective of the hospital's notes asserting Colm had received a Vitamin K injection, it was ‘highly unlikely’ that had happened.
That had led to a settlement offer being made for the first time yesterday, Mr Reidy added.
Mr Justice Vivian Lavan said the parents had been through 'a very tough time' and he was happy to approve the settlement.
Mrs Daly, clearly distressed as the case was outlined to the court, and her husband told the judge they were happy with the settlement.
