Brave Ayse wins huge damages

Jacqui Scanu and her daughter, Ayse Boguc, who has been awarded damages

The compensation from York NHS Trust, agreed by a judge at the High Court in Leeds, will give security for life to six-year-old Ayse Boguc, of Fifth Avenue, Tang Hall.

The youngster, whose plight as a baby touched the hearts of Evening Press readers, developed a serious eye condition called retinopathy by prematurity after being born three months premature.

Had she been screened at the right time and the condition - which caused her retinas to become detached - been diagnosed, she could have undergone emergency surgery which could have saved her sight.

But a vital appointment was delayed by a fortnight because an opthalmologist had a cold and did not want to infect the tiny baby. Then, when her eyes failed to dilate properly, it was another week before the problem was spotted. Treatment started immediately but it was too late to be effective.

Evening Press readers raised £27,000 in 1994 to send Ayse to America for an eye operation which it was hoped would restore her sight. It failed to achieve this, although her mother, Jacqui Scanu, believes it did enable her to see vague shapes and light.

However, she will need extra care for the rest of her life, and the damages will ensure she gets this. The money, which is also intended to compensate for pain and suffering, for some loss of earnings, and to help with accommodation and equipment costs, will be held in a special account by the court to be applied for whenever Ayse needs something.

Her York solicitor, Jane Radcliffe of Pattinson & Brewer, said the Court of Appeal was due shortly to hear cases relating to the amounts being paid out in damages, and, depending on the outcome of these hearings, the total amount of compensation paid to Ayse could yet be increased.

Mrs Scanu was delighted that the long litigation process was finally over, and her daughter had the long-term security she needed, although she said: "No amount of money can ever compensate for the loss of Ayse's sight."

She hoped the damages award would help ensure such a tragedy never happened again by alerting doctors and also the parents of other premature babies to the vital importance of screening their babies' eyes at the right time.

"There was a short window of opportunity in which they could treat the condition. If the opthalmologist had a cold, another one should have come to do the test on that day," she said.

Dr Mike Porte, medical director at York NHS Trust, said: "We recognise that this case centres on a tragic error which had far-reaching consequences for Ayse.

"The mistake was acknowledged at an early stage by the Trust so that the legal proceedings could be concluded satisfactorily as soon as possible. The facts have been agreed and a settlement has been reached. There is no way that the damage suffered by Ayse can be repaired and the Trust is very conscious of the difficulties that she and her family will face over the years to come."

Coping with a sightless world

Blind Ayse Boguc has been awarded damages which will secure her future for life. Mike Laycock examines how she is

coping in a world without sight

Ayse sits at the kitchen table reading her book as I enter her home in Tang Hall, York.

Then she walks confidently across the living room and grabs her electronic keyboard, chattering away like any other happy-go-lucky six-year-old girl.

For a moment, it is easy to forget she has any handicap. But then I look at the book more closely and spot the raised dots of Braille. And when I say hello to Ayse, she turns in my direction but apparently sees nothing other than vague colours and shapes.

Not that Ayse's blindness prevents her leading an active and fulfilling life. "She's stubborn - just like me!" says her mother Jacqui.

"She likes to do things herself and is really independent, although she asks if she needs anything. And she loves music, playing on the drum kit and keyboard."

Jacqui is determined that her daughter will always attend a mainstream school, and she currently goes to Derwent Infants, Osbaldwick Lane, York, and loves it.

"They have been absolutely brilliant. They all love her," she says. "The other children tend to mother her a bit but there's no problem. I think it helps kids to be aware of other children that are different to themselves."

Ayse has her own classroom support at Derwent - at one stage it was provided by the wife of former York City striker Neil Tolson, before he left York to play for Southend. "Neil adores her. He's on the phone to her twice a week," said Jacqui.

The damages awarded this week at the High Court mean Ayse will never be short of the equipment and care she needs to help her through life.

"If she needs a computer, I can apply to the court for some money and get it. If I get another property, it will be her property when she gets older."

But Jacqui still feels angry by the lapse at York District Hospital which meant that an eye condition was not diagnosed quickly enough, robbing her of the chance to see.

She says the problem, retinopathy by prematurity, happened because Ayse was born up to 15 weeks premature in September 1994. She did well to pull through after doctors feared she might not survive. Jacqui says she had no idea then about the risk of retinopathy and about the importance of screening at the right time. "I just thought it was a routine matter," she said.

Jacqui says she was "gutted" when she found out that the problem could have been treated if it had been spotted earlier, and is grateful for the help she received from York solicitor Jane Radcliffe, of Pattinson & Brewer, in pursuing the damages.

She is also grateful for the fundraising efforts of Evening Press readers, which paid for Ayse to go to America in the hope that her sight might be restored. Jacqui believes that, while it failed to do this, it did at least enable her to detect shapes and light.

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