A GP has agreed a £3.3m clinical negligence settlement with the family of a nine-year-old girl who was left severely disabled after he failed to diagnose the early signs of meningitis.
Nicola Lang was awarded the payout after it ruled that her daughter Caitlin’s cerebral palsy and profound learning difficulties were caused by a two-day delay in her referral to hospital with pneumococcal meningitis when she was three months old.
Miss Lang, 29, of Barry in south Wales, said that when she took Caitlin to an out-of-hours GP service in the Vale of Glamorgan in January 2000 she was told that her baby had gastric flu. She said Dr Salih sent her home and told her to give her daughter Calpol.
However, Caitlin’s symptoms worsened and, two days later, she was taken to Llandough Hospital in the Vale of Glamorgan, where she was diagnosed with pneumococcal meningitis.
Miss Lang said she was warned that Caitlin could be brain damaged when she recovered, but it was not until her daughter was one year old that she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
A statement issued on behalf of the GP said: “While no amount of money can remedy the situation, Dr Salih hopes that the agreed financial settlement will enable Caitlin and her family to have the appropriate financial security for the future.”
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