A BOY aged nine destined for a lifetime of disability after suffering catastrophic brain damage at birth has won more than £4million in compensation.

Khazar Iqbal, from Epsom, needs intensive care because he was starved of oxygen while being delivered at Whipps Cross Hospital in east London.

His mother Irene, 35, went to court to sue its NHS trust after the traumatic birth in March 1997, claiming that medical staff failed to detect signs of foetal distress.

Had an obstetrician been called and a Caesarean operation been performed Khazar, she alleged, would have escaped serious injury.

As it is, he suffers permanent physical and mental disabilities, is prone to epileptic fits, cannot speak and will always have to be fed through a gastronomy tube.

'Windswept' posture

Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust admitted liability in November 2003 but it was only December 8 that a High Court judge awarded Khazar compensation of £4,619,912.

Judge Roger Bell said the boy's devoted family had for years coped alone at their cramped flat with the "stress and weariness" of giving him permanent care.

Mrs Iqbal, worried about a repeat of the tragedy, was put off having more babies. She finally delivered a healthy boy in September.

Judge Bell told the hearing: "The combination of physical disability and learning difficulty is devastating.

"Khazar suffers from abnormal, curved, 'windswept' posture. He will never walk or stand unaided and he has no independent mobility apart from some ability to roll from side to side.

"All this is permanent. There will be no major functional improvement."

The payout includes £2.5million to cover Khazar's future care, and £500,000 to accommodate him at the world-renowned Ingfield Manor School in West Sussex.

Judge Bell also gave the child £210,000 for his "pain, suffering and loss of amenity", £260,000 for lost earnings and £325,000 to cover IT equipment.

The NHS had made interim payments to the Iqbal family, which paid for their specially adapted four-bedroom bungalow in Epsom.