€19,980,000 settlement for 11 year old boy with cerebral palsy

We secured a total settlement of €19,980,000 for our client, an 11 year old boy with cerebral palsy, who has bilateral spastic diplegic cerebral palsy.

Alex Foley was born under difficult circumstances in Cork University Maternity Hospital on 5th October 2010. It was claimed that there was a failure by the hospital to identify that the fetus’ blood vessels were crossing or running near to the internal opening of the uterus. This is a condition called ‘vasa praevia’, and it is life threatening.

Vasa praevia can be identified through the use of a transvaginal ultrasound and a colour doppler, and it is scanned for when there are certain risk factors present. In this case, it was alleged that the Plaintiff’s mother was by all criteria, at high risk for vasa praevia and had the correct ultrasound imaging occurred, there was a very high chance that the condition would have been identified and that the Plaintiff and his twin brother would have been delivered before the artificial or spontaneous rupture of the membranes.

Instead, the Plaintiff’s mother’s waters were artificially ruptured and massive bleeding occurred. Alex was born in an extremely poor condition and a brain MRI revealed brain damage. He was later diagnosed with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy and other issues,  birth injuries.

We achieved an interim settlement payment of €1.98m in December 2016, to last a period of 5 years and we achieved a full and final settlement payment of €18m in October 2021. Damages were assessed on a 90% basis in 2016 and on a 100% basis in 2021.

After securing the interim settlement of €1.98m in 2016, Alex moved into a state of the art fully accessible home with his loving family. He underwent further life changing SDR surgery in the United States and started a range of private therapies. Over the last 5 years Alex has made tremendous progress and this is a testament to the work put in by his dedicated parents. This final settlement of €18m will allow Alex to continue to access the private therapies and care, so that he can grow up to be as independent as possible. He is destined to achieve many great things and it truly was a pleasure working with him and his family.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/boy-11-with-cerebral-palsy-settles-action-against-hse-for-20m-1.4698419

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2021/1012/1253305-court-settlement/

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40719294.html