A WOMAN stricken by crippling brain injuries after her birth at a Bury hospital over 30 years ago today won a massive compensation pay-out in London's High Court.

The woman is afflicted by "profound disabilities" which her lawyers largely blamed on negligence by medics at Bury's Fairfield General Hospital in the early 1980s.

She was born premature, and was also deprived of oxygen during her delivery, which her legal team blamed on "negligence by hospital staff".

But Mr Justice Soole, who today approved a seven-figure pay-out in her case, said the hospital had denied liability.

"It was accepted that she would have suffered substantial disability in any event", the judge added.

Medics and lawyers had grappled with the "highly complex" question of the precise cause of her current condition, he explained.

And in the end they agreed to settle the case on the basis of the woman getting 50 per cent of the damages claimed.

This will result in her receiving a £1m lump sum - plus index-linked and tax-free payments of £88,000-a-year for the rest of her life, to cover the costs of her care.

The woman's parents had sued the North West Strategic Health Authority.

She has "zero mobility" and was described as being "about as profoundly disabled as you can be".

Her parents, travelled down from the north west to hear Mr Justice Soole approve the settlement which draws a line under years of litigation.

The judge paid tribute to their love and devotion over the years, saying he was "lost in admiration for the care provided by this lady's mother and father".

"I'm humbled by what they have done," he told the court.

The judge said he had no hesitation in approving the settlement.

A spokesman for The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “Our sympathy is with the family in this upsetting case which concerned intensive care management provided following the patient’s birth in 1984 at Fairfield General Hospital. 

"Court proceedings were brought 28 years after the treatment was provided. Following detailed investigation, including the commissioning of independent expert reports, a compromise settlement has now been reached.”