Boy born severely disabled at Blackpool Victoria Hospital awarded £27m in compensation

The youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered serious brain damage due to a delay in his delivery at the hospital, with the NHS trust admitting liability “at an early stage”, family barrister William Featherby QC said.

The High Court settlement, announced yesterday, will see the boy given £5.7m up front, with annual, index-linked and tax-free sums of £88,000-a-year until he’s 11, £125,000-a-year until he’s 19, and then £200,000-a-year after that for the rest of his life.

His father was not in court to hear of the pay-out because he could not afford the train ticket to London.

Approving the settlement, Mrs Justice Lambert said it was a “remarkable story” of a father’s struggle to look after a gravely disabled boy.

She said: “I must pay tribute to the father, who cares for his son on a full-time basis. He is a deeply conscientious man who has lavished care and attention on his family.

“His son loves stories, cartoons, and soft toys, and he plainly brings a great deal of joy into his father’s life.”

Following yesterday’s hearing at the High Court in London, a spokesman for Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said in a short statement: “The trust would like to reiterate its sincere apologies to the family of this young boy in what has been a very tragic case.”

Earlier this year, The Gazette revealed how mistakes at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Vic and Clifton Hospital in St Annes, had cost £42.3m since 2012.

Out of 258 trusts, it ranked at 44 – though it was 98th once the number of patients it treats was taken into account, an investigation showed. The trust said at the time “clinical errors are very rare.”