Mother's £5.2m victory in struggle to care for disabled son
A MOTHER who has raised her severely disabled son for 12 years without help from social services was today awarded damages worth £5.2m to provide 24-hour care for the rest of his life.
Tracey McAlinden, 42, won a protracted court case against City Hospital, Birmingham, where a sequence of blunders caused her son, Callum Robertson, to be born with cerebral palsy in 1994.
Callum, who will be 13 next month, is confined to a wheelchair. He relies for dressing, washing and bathing on his parents, Ms McAlinden and Andy Robertson, 45.
Callum suffers occasional fits, is unlikely ever to speak and needs constant supervision because he has little sense of danger.
He screamed constantly as a baby, Ms McAlinden said. "But I couldn't get any help.
"Birmingham city council said he wasn't disabled enough. The only help I got was a nurse who put a tube down his throat to feed him.
"I asked everybody for help and to this day I don't know why I didn't qualify even for a rubber mat to prevent him slipping in the bath.
"One doctor said Callum would never develop over the age of one, and the best advice I got from another was to give him tender loving care. You feel like everyone is against you - and the future for Callum was frightening."
Ms McAlinden, whose six other children are all healthy, scoured public libraries for information about brain damaged children, convinced that Callum's injuries were caused by medical errors during her pregnancy.
She dismissed her solicitors after seven fruitless years considering legal action and turned to a medical negligence lawyer, an expert in fighting clinical negligence claims.
Ms McAlinden, of Erdington, Birmingham, said. "We've proved today that mistakes in paediatrics were made and that Callum does deserve care.
"I was told once to sedate him every four hours. But he's a bright little kid who loves to be outside or to use a computer. Maybe our story can give hope to anyone in a similar situation."
Clinical Negligence lawyers Bond Pearce, said damages awarded in the High Court against Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, would be phased over Callum's life.
"This wasn't a straightforward birth injury. Tracey's condition wasn't properly monitored and Callum failed to receive proper care for his condition after he was born. He suffered severe and permanent brain damage as a result."
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