Parents win battle to get justice for their 'little miracle'

The parents of a child left with permanent brain damage when doctors at a Guildford hospital delayed his birth for more than two hours have described the day they thought they would lose their miracle son.

Helen and Roger Leysters three-year-old son Julian suffers from cerebral palsy due to his brain being starved of oxygen when a consultant at the Royal Surrey County Hospital delayed sending Mrs Leyster for a caesarean by more than two hours.

The couple instructed medical law experts to look into the fraught pregnancy on March 24, 2010, which Julian was lucky to survive, and have secured admission of liability from the NHS Foundation Trust, in which it confirmed that the delay caused his brain damage.

Now the family, living in Surbiton but originally from Claygate, will receive financial support in a settlement to fund Julians care, rehabilitation and equipment needs for the rest of his life.

Mr Leyster said: You would expect us to be jumping for joy when we got the news, but its a strange mixed feeling. You realise that this couldve been avoided and things would have been completely different for Julian.

Speaking to the Get Surrey, Mrs Leyster, 42, explained how she had gone to the hospital at 10am, while 36 weeks pregnant, because she was concerned that her baby was not moving.

She said: I was worried, but not particularly stressed. I have had four babies before, so I was quite calm at this point.

At first it seemed things would progress quickly, causing Mr Leyster to rush away from his workplace at Heathrow to get to the hospital, before the couples consultant decided to delay the caesarean.

He more or less changed his mind there and then and said I didnt need it, which was pretty confusing, Mrs Leyster said.

Over the next few hours, with the couple describing an atmosphere of indecision, Julians heart rate continued to drop, before it eventually stopped.

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Parents win battle to get justice for their 'little miracle'