A WIRRAL child has received a cash payout after doctors failed to notice a serious problem when he was in his mother's womb.

Stephen Loraine, nine, of Rock Ferry, needs 24-hour care after he was starved of vital oxygen he needed to develop.

Doctors at Arrowe Park Hospital had not spotted a dangerous fibroid on his mum Pauline's womb during a scan despite this information being on her medical notes.

She was rushed into hospital three days later after suffering massive bleeding at her home.

Stephen was starved of oxygen for more than 45 minutes and was later diagnosed with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy and impaired sight.

If the hospital has reviewed Pauline's notes from her previous four pregnancies, they would have admitted her in the days leading up to the birth and delivered Stephen with emergency care.

Stephen now lives at home with his mum Pauline, dad, Mark a marine fitter for Mersey Ferries, and his four brothers and sisters aged between 11 and 20.

He attends the Lyndale School in Eastham, which provides special care to children with severe learning difficulties and his mum is his main carer.

The family decided to pursue a claim against the hospital for clinical negligence through Thompson Solicitors and have now been awarded an undisclosed sum that will pay for Stephen's on-going care.

Stephen's father, Mark, is pleased the process is over and is looking forward to concentrating on giving his son the quality of care he deserves.

He said: “This has been a long hard fight to secure Stephen’s long term care.

“An interim payment has already allowed us to move to a more suitable house which has a bathroom and bedroom on the ground floor. Stephen is able to move around all of the rooms on the ground floor in his wheelchair Stephen’s smile lights up the room and he brings us so much joy. We are eternally grateful he survived such a traumatic birth. Now we want to concentrate on helping him to develop his full potential to make his life as happy and fulfilled as possible.”

Gillian Muir, from Thompsons Solicitors hopes the result will prevent this happening to another family in the future.

She said: 'This judgment now means Stephen will be looked after financially for the rest of his life.

“To avoid any other family having to go through what the Loraines have had to put up with we hope this judgment will mean that hospitals ensure full past obstetric notes are available to the treating clinicians when a pregnant woman is seen in hospital or by community midwives, and appropriate plans are made for their treatment and delivery of the baby.”

A spokesman for Arrowe Park said:“Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust would like to reiterate its sincere apologies to Stephen Loraine and his family for the serious injuries he sustained around the time of his birth on August 22, 2000.

“The Trust sincerely hopes that the agreed settlement will enable Stephen’s family to provide the care and support that he needs and would like to extend its good wishes to them all for the future.”