A girl whose brain was accidentally
injected with glue during treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital is to
receive a multi-million-pound damages payout after she was left with
devastating permanent brain damage.
Despite having a rare medical
condition that involved arteries and veins getting tangled, which could result
in a bleed, Maisha Najeeb, of Ilford, Essex, was a healthy 10-year-old until
she went into hospital in June 2010.
On other occasions, she had
successfully received embolisation treatment, which involves injecting glue to
block off bleeding blood vessels, and an injection of a harmless dye to check
the flow of blood around the brain and head.
But on this occasion, said solicitor
Edwina Rawson of legal firm Field Fisher Waterhouse, there was no system in
place for distinguishing between the syringes containing the glue and those
containing the dye, and they got mixed up.
This resulted in glue being wrongly
injected into the artery to Maisha’s brain, causing catastrophic and permanent
brain damage.
Today, Judge Birtles at London’s High Court approved a settlement against Great Ormond Street Hospital For Children NHS Trust of a £2.8million lump sum, plus £383,000 a year until Maisha is 19, increasing to £423,000 per year for as long as she lives, which some experts expect to be to the age of 64.
The trust, which admitted liability
for Maisha’s injuries, repeated its unreserved apologies for the shortcomings
in her care, which had such devastating consequences.
It said her family had engaged
open-heartedly with the trust, which had allowed staff to really learn from
what happened to Maisha so that improvements could be made.
Neil Block QC, said: 'We can’t wind
the clock back. We hope there are now systems and procedures in place to ensure
such a tragic mistake cannot be made again.
'While money can’t restore what
Maisha has lost, we are sure a great burden has been lifted from the family by
coming to the settlement we have.'
He said one could not help but be
inspired by what Maisha’s parents, Sadir Hussain and Rukshana, had achieved in
terms of their 13-year-old daughter’s rehabilitation.
'It is probably the most intensive cognitive rehabilitation we have ever seen by a family and we would wish to acknowledge everything they have done for Maisha and wish them well for the future.'
The judge extended his sympathy and
admiration to the family and said he hoped the compensation would make the rest
of Maisha’s life as comfortable as possible.
Outside court, Maisha’s father said:
'We are sad and devastated by what happened to our daughter.
'Her life is ruined. All her dreams
have been broken. I hope that by bringing this case, lessons will have been
learned to avoid this happening to other families.
'We are grateful that agreement has
been reached with Great Ormond Street to ensure that Maisha’s care needs are
met.'
The compensation will be spent on
care and accommodation for Maisha, who needs assistance with all daily tasks
day and night, is in a wheelchair and has lost the vast majority of her bodily
and cognitive abilities.
Ms Rawson said: 'What is so
heart-breaking about this case is that the injury was so avoidable.
'If the syringes had been marked-up
so the hospital could see which contained glue and which contained dye, then
Maisha would not have suffered what is an utterly devastating brain injury.
'Such easily avoidable mistakes
should not happen.'
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