by Angela Cole
acole@thekmgroup.co.uk

The mother of a seven-year-old girl who suffered catastrophic injuries at birth has welcomed news that health chiefs have admitted that mistakes were made in her daughter’s delivery.

She says the admission will make the family’s lives easier.

Becky Penfold’s eldest daughter Harriet suffered brain damage of the “utmost severity” during her delivery at Maidstone Hospital in August 2002, as her blood circulation collapsed and she was starved of oxygen.

Mrs Penfold and her husband Nevill, from Hawkenbury, Staplehurst, have now heard that, after issuing a High Court writ against the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, the NHS Litigation Authority has admitted liability on behalf of the trust.

The family must now wait for Harriet’s care and treatment needs to be assessed before they find out what she could receive, although it could potentially be a seven-figure settlement.

Mrs Penfold said: “This will make life a little bit easier.
“Harriet is going to need full-time care. At the moment, as she is only seven, we can carry her and lift her, but it is starting to take its toll on our backs.

“In the future, she may need equipment and carers, and our house may even have to be adapted.
“At the moment we do everything ourselves.”

Since having Harriet, Mrs Penfold has given birth twice more at Maidstone Hospital, to daughters who are now aged five and three.
She said: “It was hard to make that decision and it was scary, but I had the same midwife as I had done with Harriet, so I was reassured.”

Harriet now goes to a special school in Westerham and plays happily with her sisters.

A spokesman for the NHS Litigation Authority said the NHS trust had admitted that too many attempts were made to deliver Harriet by ventouse, or vacuum device, and that it should have been stopped after the third attempt.

The trust admitted that a doctor tried six times to deliver her in this manner; there was a breach of duty and a delay of between 20 and 40 minutes from when she could have been delivered if all had gone well.

The trust has also admitted that the delay in delivery and use of ventouse was what caused the damage.

The spokesman added that it was expected that a lump sum would be paid to the family, followed by annual payments.