THE mother of a baby who suffered oxygen starvation is suing Great Western Hospital for more than £10 million.

The claimant, from Swindon, says the issues caused during her son's birth in September 2018 have left him with cerebral palsy.

Her negligence claim, issued at the High Court in London, alleges that if her baby had been born an hour earlier, he would not have experienced this injury and developed the debilitating condition.

The case argues that the hospital trust admitted to failing to carry out reviews of the patient during labour, failing to give intravenous antibiotics, and failing to review blood test results.

She cannot be named because doing so would lead to the identification of her young son, who has the right to anonymity.

At 43 weeks pregnant with her first child, the woman went to the White Horse Birth Centre after her water broke.

Legal papers suggest she was advised to go home and wait, and that when she returned to the centre later in labour, she was taken to the delivery suite.

CTG traces of the unborn baby’s heartrate were reportedly assessed as normal until around 3am on September 29 and were again recorded as normal later, despite suspicions about them.

The baby was delivered at 5.26am in poor condition and unresponsive, so medics transferred the newborn to the neo-natal intensive care unit.

His circulation was not restored until around 5.32am.

The trust is said to have admitted in a letter of response that he would have avoided any brain injury if he had been delivered between 4.25am and 4.40am.

The court papers say that this negligence claim is likely to be for more than £10 million and will include the cost of care, case management, lost earnings, accommodation, therapies, technology, costs of deputyship, transport, holidays, and for the lost years of his life.

Cerebral palsy is caused by a problem in the brain which develops before, during, or soon after birth. Its symptoms are not normally noticeable until two or three years into a child's life, and it will affect that youngster's movement and coordination for the rest of their days.

A Great Western Hospital spokeswoman said: "We are truly sorry that we didn’t provide the standard of care we aim to provide to families during the birth of their child.

"We sincerely hope that a resolution can be achieved which will ensure a high quality of support and care for life."