The High Court has approved an interim settlement of €5m in the case of a now five-year-old boy who suffered a catastrophic brain injury due to a failure to diagnose an obstruction of his airways he had since birth.
Graysen Reid was born prematurely at 26 weeks' gestation on 23 December 2019 at South Tipperary General Hospital.
He experienced severe difficulties with his airways and there were numerous failed attempts to intubate him.
He was later transferred to Cork University Hospital and went between both hospitals for treatment in the first few months of his life.
The court was told that despite clear signs of obstruction there was no proper investigation of his airways leading to "catastrophic consequences".
In March 2020 he suffered respiratory arrest and was again unable to be intubated leading to a 30-minute delay in reestablishing his airway.
He was later diagnosed with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) - a severe brain injury caused by oxygen deprivation.
Over the following months, he continued to experience repeated problems with his airways and had to be resuscitated multiple times but was discharged home in June 2020.
In July 2020, he was finally referred to Our Lady's Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, where his condition was recognised.
During surgery, doctors were unable to intubate him, and an emergency tracheostomy was required to save his life. He was diagnosed with a Grade 4 airway and tracheomalacia-conditions present since birth.
Senior Counsel Patrick Treacy told the High Court today that as a result of these failures to recognise and treat his airway obstruction, Graysen sustained irreversible brain injury, leaving him with Grade 5 cerebral palsy and profound physical and cognitive impairment.
Today the court approved an interim settlement of €5m which will enable him to access specialist therapies and adapted housing.
The court was told he requires round-the-clock care, will need to use a wheelchair for life, and has numerous other care requirements.
The current family home was completely unsuitable for a wheelchair user and the damages agreed upon will be used to build a suitably adapted home.
Mr Treacy told the court the defendants accepted 80% liability for the case having argued that Graysen, having been born prematurely would have suffered some complications and that even if a referral to a specialist had been made, it was not certain that a tracheostomy would have been carried out immediately due to the invasive nature of the procedure.
The case will return to the High Court for a further assessment of Graysen's lifelong care needs.
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Approving the settlement today, Mr Justice Paul Coffey described it as a sad and tragic case which has "upended the lives" of Graysen's parents. He said he believed the settlement was a fair and reasonable one in light of the risks associated with Graysen’s premature birth.
Afterwards Graysen’s mother Rachel Reid said today marked "a very long and painful journey for our family".
She said nothing could undo the harm that was done to their little boy, adding that "Graysen’s life has been irreparably changed, and so too has ours. What should have been a short hospital stay after his birth turned into years of crisis, fear, and loss.
"Graysen is the heart of our family - he brings us joy every single day - but the life he lives now, and the care he will need for the rest of his life, are the direct result of failings that should never have happened.
Her statement continued: "The failures in Graysen’s care didn’t happen on just one day - they happened again and again over the first seven months of his life, when he was a tiny, vulnerable baby. The doctors we trusted to protect him let him down repeatedly, and there is no excuse for it.
"The damages approved by the High Court today will help to provide the care, home, and support that Graysen deserves, but no amount of money can ever make right what has been taken from him.
"The truth is that the people who really pay for medical negligence are not the hospitals or the State - it is the children, the parents, and the families who must live every day with the consequences.
"We hope that lessons will be learned from what happened to Graysen so that no other family has to endure the same heartache," Ms Reid added.
