- A British girl has won a settlement for £39 million after having all her limbs amputated.
- Her family said a hospital wrongfully discharged her, and that she later developed sepsis.
A British girl has won a settlement of £39 million, or $48.3 million, after doctors amputated all her limbs following a wrongful discharge from a hospital.
Lawyers for the unnamed girl said her parents took her to Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey, southeast England, with a high fever, drowsiness, and vomiting, Metro reported. These symptoms are "red flags for meningitis and sepsis," according to the BBC News, but doctors sent her home with paracetamol, or acetaminophen.
Her parents returned to the hospital when her condition worsened, and doctors diagnosed her with meningococcal sepsis. She later experienced multi-organ failure.
The severity of her sepsis later led to her needing the quadruple-limb amputations, Elizabeth-Anne Gumbel KC, who is representing the family, said, the BBC reported. The girl had above-knee amputations of both legs, and above-elbow amputations of her arms.
Her family argued that if doctors had immediately treated her with antibiotics, she would not have been so ill and might have kept her limbs.
The hospital trust admitted liability at the High Court in London on Friday, Metro reported.
Gumbel described the girl as "extraordinarily brave" and said she is "managing in school to do very well academically," the BBC reported.
According to the BBC, Deborah Nadel, the family's lawyer, described her injuries and subsequent disabilities as "completely avoidable with proper care."
The NHS trust accepted liability for the young girl's condition, with Bradley Martin KC, who represented the trust, saying, "there is no amount of money that can truly compensate for her injuries."
The girl will receive part of the settlement in a lump sum, and will receive the remainder annually for the rest of her life.
A spokesperson for the NHS trust told the BBC: "We are very sorry for the claimant's injuries, and we understand no amount of money can fully compensate for them.
"However, we are pleased that the settlement has been approved, and we hope the agreed damages will ensure that the claimant can live as independently as possible in the future."