Health board's £20m for girl left with lifelong disabilities

The girl was five months old and receiving treatment in hospital when the incident happened

A settlement could see £20m awarded to a girl who was left with lifelong disabilities after being starved of oxygen at hospital.

Her mother described her being "snatched away" from her and "changed forever" after doctors failed to properly ventilate her.

It happened when she was five months at Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales.

She is now 18 and hospital bosses were ordered to pay £2.1m plus £203,000 a year for the rest of her life.

The settlement, announced at the High Court sitting in Cardiff on Monday, could see £19,744, 265 handed out by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, taking into account her life expectancy.

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"She is mobile but doesn't really know what is going on. I went from having a healthy baby to a seriously disabled child through no fault of our own," her mother said.

"That said, I wouldn't change her for the world and don't love her any differently."

The girl, who cannot be named, had suffered complications when she was aged five months, following an operation to correct a malformed oesophagus.

As she was being treated in hospital, she suffered a respiratory arrest and "turned blue" after being starved of oxygen.

The 1,000-bed University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff was opened in 1971

Last month, a judge agreed doctors failed to adequately ventilate the toddler before and after the incident in February 2000.

The mother of the girl, who has cared for her since the treatment, said: "I had my daughter snatched away from me.

"From that moment she changed forever."

The girl's solicitor Yvonne Agnew said she will now get care for the rest of her life and hoped lessons have been learned.

"This is a tragic case of a little girl, with her whole life ahead of her, having her future snatched away from her through no fault of her own," she added.

"We have had to fight for years to get justice for our client and to get the trust to admit their failings."

Cardiff and Vale Health Board declined to comment about the case.