Thomson Snell & Passmore settles clinical negligence claim on behalf of brain damaged infant

01/04/2009

Thomson Snell & Passmore has settled a clinical negligence claim in excess of £6 million against East & North Hertfordshire NHS Trust on behalf of Eleanor (Ellie) Matraves, who was seriously brain damaged at birth. The way in which the parents were also treated was so bad that they have received compensation for the suffering they endured.

Ellie, now six years old, was left seriously brain damaged due to errors made during her birth at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Hertfordshire in November 2002. She was born clinically dead as a result of inadequate oxygenation prior to birth and had to be aggressively resuscitated for over two hours. This occurred as a result of the failure by the midwives and doctors to recognise that Ellie was in distress during labour, including a failure to interpret CTG traces (a trace that monitors the foetal heart rate). Subsequent medical evidence has shown that Ellie only sustained her brain damage in the last 20 minutes before she was born. Many babies would not have survived such a long ordeal. 

As a result of the hospital's negligence, Ellie has Athetoid Cerebral Palsy affecting all four limbs and significant special needs that require round-the-clock supervision from a team of carers. 

Fiona Mills, a partner at Thomson Snell & Passmore, who represents Ellie's family, commented: 

“Ellie's family is relieved that the case has now settled so that they can get on with the rest of their lives. The compensation secured on behalf of Ellie will provide for the special care and attention that she will require for the rest of her life.” 

Ellie's parents, Claire Taylor and Colin Matraves, who both suffered post traumatic stress disorder and depression following Ellie's birth, said: 

“No amount of money can ever repair the physical and emotional damage Lister Hospital has caused to our daughter's life but we can now look forward to giving Ellie a better quality of life, with the equipment and care she needs and deserves to realise her potential. We feel it is important for people to understand that if it hadn't been for the hospital's negligence, our daughter would have been born a healthy non-disabled baby girl. 

We also appreciate that there are a lot of NHS staff out there who are very good at their jobs, but we are not living in the Dark Ages. It's about time horror stories and situations like we have experienced became a thing of the past once and for all. We can only hope that ‘the powers that be' have had the foresight and intelligence to make sure that the failings of the numerous staff involved in our case have been dealt with adequately.” 

Click here to read more about the case and click here to view a recent feature in The Law Society Gazette about Fiona Mills who represented the family in this case.