Bid to scrap tragic boy’s £5.5m birth blunder payout fails

Fifteen years after tragic Leeds teenager Nathan Popple’s birth at Birmingham Women’s Hospital lawyers and experts are still at odds over exactly what happened in a period of just five minutes before his delivery.

However, Appeal Court judges yesterday accepted negligence had played a part in his catastrophic injuries and upheld his £5.5m damages award.

Lord Justice Ward, said that such an award “may seen to the uninitiated staggering” but every penny would be needed to fund the lifetime of care and assistance Nathan will need.

A tragic delay of a few short minutes in Nathan’s delivery condemned him to a life of acute disability. His intellect was spared and, although that gives him insight into all the things he cannot do, he remains “an apparently happy and well-cared for young man”.

A judge last year found that signs of foetal distress had been missed by hospital staff and Nathan’s birth – at exactly 14.49 on November 21 1997 – had been negligently delayed by five minutes that made the difference between him receiving millions, or nothing at all.

Judge Stephen Oliver-Jones QC said that, had Nathan been delivered by 14.44, he would have been uninjured.

Lawyers for Birmingham Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust insisted the damage to Nathan’s brain occurred “some time remote from delivery” in the last three days of his mother’s labour.

They also argued that Judge Oliver-Jones “misunderstood” medical expert evidence central to the case and claimed that, even with competent care, Nathan could not have been delivered by the critical time of 14.44.

Lord Justice Ward, sitting with Lords Justice Longmore and Richards, said he had “agonised” over the case but, after detailed consideration was “totally satisfied” Nathan’s payout was merited.

The 15-year-old needs 24-hour care and is looked after by his mother, Beryl Sanderson, her civil partner and his 16-year-old sister, Jade. His father, Stephen Popple, plays an active part in his life.