A young woman with cerebral palsy has been awarded more than €4 million by the High Court for her future care needs.
The 19-year-old woman, who cannot be named as she is a ward of court, has a history of severe quadriplegic cerebral palsy with spasticity and suffered a very severe hypoxic ischaemic insult at birth.
Six years ago, the plaintiff, who is cared for by her mother, settled her case against the Health Service Executive on terms including an interim payment of €1.1 million.
The HSE admitted liability.
The case was before the High Court in January, when Mr Justice Kevin Cross heard evidence from medical experts on both sides in relation to future care costs.
Mr Justice Cross said the young woman has a profound mental handicap, impaired hearing, blindness and inability to communicate meaningfully except for rudimentary recognition of her mother.
She is fully dependent and requires 24-hour care, he said.
He decided that when the young woman is not in a day-care centre she needs two carers during the day, as well as two at night.
On the basis of those and other findings, he allowed more than €4 million for future care costs.