Damages claim: Woman suing her mother’s doctor awarded millions
A para- showjumping star, Evie Toombes, who sued her mother’s doctor for allowing her to be born has won the right to millions in damages in a landmark High Court ruling Wednesday, December 1.
Evie, 20, was born with spina bifida – a condition where a baby’s spine and spinal cord fail to develop in the womb, causing a gap in the spine – and spends 24 hours-a-day connected to tubes. Despite that, she has forged a career in showjumping, competing against both disabled and able-bodied riders.
Can a baby survive spina bifida?
Between 1,500 and 2,000 babies of the four million born in the U.S. every year have spina bifida. Thanks to advances in medicine, 90 per cent of babies who have this defect live to be adults, and most go on to lead full lives.
She won the Inspirational Young Person Award at a Well Child charity event in 2018, and has appeared on ITV’s show ‘Hidden Disabilities: What’s The Truth?’ and met Prince Harry and Meghan.
She also educates children about invisible illnesses and works at Nottingham University.
Last month, in a “wrongful conception” damages claim, Evie from Skegness, Lincolnshire, England sued Dr Philip Mitchell over his failure to advise her mother Caroline Toombes, 50, to take vital supplements before getting pregnant.
She claimed that if the doctor had told her mother that she needed to take folic acid supplements to minimise the risk of spina bifida affecting her baby, she would have put off getting pregnant until she had done so, and as a result Evie would never have been born at all.
