- A British girl has won a settlement for £39m ($48.3 m) after having all her limbs amputated.
- Her family said she was wrongfully discharged from a hospital and later developed sepsis.
- The family's lawyer described her injuries and disabilities as "completely avoidable with proper care."
A British girl has won a settlement of £39 million ($48.3m) after having all her limbs amputated following a wrongful discharge from a hospital.
Lawyers for the unnamed girl said that she was taken to Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey, southeast England, with high fever, drowsiness and vomiting, reported Metro, described as "red flags for meningitis and sepsis," according to the BBC News, but she was sent away with paracetamol.
Her parents returned to the hospital when her condition worsened, where she was diagnosed with meningococcal sepsis and later endured multi-organ failure.
The severity of her sepsis later led to her needing her quadruple limb amputations, said Elizabeth-Anne Gumbel KC, representing the family, per the BBC. The girl had above-knee amputations of both legs, and above-elbow amputations of her arms, said the BBC.
Her family argued that if she was immediately treated with antibiotics, then she would not have been so ill and could have saved her limbs.
The hospital trust admitted liability at the High Court in London on Friday, reported Metro.
Gumbel described the girl as "extraordinarily brave" and said she is "managing in school to do very well academically," per the BBC.
According to the BBC, the family's lawyer Deborah Nadel described her injuries and 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 the remainder will be paid 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."
