pounds 250,000 for damage to ecstasy user

A BRAIN-DAMAGED woman who lost the ability to speak, read and write after taking ecstasy at a nightclub yesterday won pounds 250,000 agreed damages in the High Court from the hospital that treated her.

In what is believed to be the first compensation pay-out of its kind, Lorraine Leighton, now aged 25, had sued North Middlesex Hospital NHS Trust over the care she received after she was admitted in January 1995.

Ms Leighton sat next to her parents in court as her counsel, Duncan Pratt, said her case was "a question of both tragedy and triumph".

Ms Leighton had been left with a catalogue of neurological disabilities which she and her family had fought hard to overcome, Mr Pratt said. The former beautician, who is not expected to work again, had had to relearn how to write, swallow, feed herself and communicate.

Ms Leighton had taken two half tablets of ecstasy before she collapsed and was admitted, semi-conscious, to North Middlesex Hospital in north London, the court was told.

Mr Pratt claimed that Miss Leighton's problems were "eminently correctable" when she arrived in hospital and that there was little or no active investigation or management of her condition during her first 48 hours there. During that time she suffered irreversible brain damage, the court was told. It was also claimed that the administration of fluids exacerbated her problems.

The trust, which denied liability, admitted breach of duty in that some mandatory investigations were not performed by the medical staff who admitted Ms Leighton. It also admitted that it was not appropriate to continue with fluids beyond a certain point.

The trust said that if the case had not been settled, it would have argued that the brain swelling suffered by Ms Leighton was a direct toxic effect of taking ecstasy, so any mismanagement there might have been was not the cause of her brain damage. It also claimed that Ms Leighton had contributed to her own injury by taking the drug.

Dr Thomas Leigh of the Medical Defence Union, said yesterday: "Anybody who has been a victim of medical negligence should be compensated swiftly and fairly. One cannot distinguish between people on the basis of what they have done to be in hospital."

A spokeswoman for the charity Action for Victims of Medical Accidents said that she believed this was the first time an ecstasy victim had received compensation following a civil action.