Damages For 'Gifted Child' Trapped In Disabled Bod

[bongme]

hi

Ananova

Thursday March 7, 2002

A "gifted child" who is trapped in a severely disabled body has been awarded £4.1 million High Court damages.

An expert said seven-year-old Lucy Webster, who has problems with movement and speech, had one of the highest verbal IQs in the country.

Lucy developed cerebral palsy after being deprived of oxygen at her birth at Queen Charlotte's Hospital, west London, on Christmas Day 1994.

She will always be dependent upon a wheelchair, needs assistance with dressing, washing and eating and requires a carer at school.

Despite being prone to unexpected, involuntary limb movements, she has a dominant left hand and can write, draw and feed herself with a spoon if her food is cut up.

She was also extremely intelligent and had been accepted at top London preparatory school Bute House, where she hoped to start in September.

Tests when she was six-and-a-half showed that she had the reading age of a child of eight-and-a-half years and the mathematical ability of a seven-and-a-half-year-old.

Her results on verbal ability was "outstanding" with a score putting her higher than 999 able-bodied children out of 1,000 - equivalent to a child of 12 and a half.

Lucy, lives with her parents, Andrew, a 42-year-old chartered building contract surveyor, and Marguerite, 44, a personal assistant, at Rothschild Road, in Chiswick, west London.

The damages were awarded against Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, which admitted liability but contested the amount of compensation.

Bongme

[Jibber Jabber]

and damm right too.

Its just another NHS screwup that should never have happened.

The question i cant help thinking is, if this terrible mistake hadn't happened would she still be that bright or has the brain some how compensated. look at stephen hawkin.

Sorry it that sound careless of me, it's not intended

:peace: JJ