Alice Joyce

A girl who was starved of oxygen at birth and suffered severe brain damage, has been awarded £5.6m compensation.

Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust admitted responsibility for Alice Joyce’s disabilities.

She was starved of oxygen during her mother’s labour at Wycombe General Hospital in High Wycombe in March 1996, the High Court heard.

The payout will provide Alice with the 24-hour care, equipment, therapy and accommodation throughout her life.

She has been diagnosed as having spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy and delayed mental development.

Happy girl

Her parents Chris and Carolyn Joyce, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, made the High Court claim for compensation.

The NHS Trust admitted liability and apologised for the standard of care provided to Mrs Joyce and her daughter.

Describing his daughter as a “happy, sociable” girl, Mr Joyce said the compensation would ensure that Alice was looked after for the rest of her life.

“It is so sad she will never have a normal life and do all the things we take for granted,” he said.

“The NHS continues to pay out considerable sums in these cases.

“Isn’t it time lessons were learnt so other people would not have to go through this devastating heartache?”

Mrs Joyce had had a caesarean section delivery with her previous child, but was not warned of the risk of rupture of the womb should she have a normal delivery with a second child.

‘Learn from mistakes’

If she had been warned of this risk she would have chosen to have a caesarean delivery again and avoided the risk of labour, the court heard.

Instead, she had a normal delivery and Alice was born in a very poor condition and not breathing.

Mrs Joyce suffered a massive haemorrhage and had to be resuscitated.

The trust’s chief nurse and director of patient care standards, Sarah Watson-Fisher, said: “We would like to express our sincere apologies to Alice and her family for the errors in the care given at the time of her birth in 1996.

“We take matters like this very seriously and are committed to learning from our mistakes.

“We hope that the settlement will be of great assistance to Alice and we offer her and her family our best wishes for the future.”