In a landmark High Court verdict on December 1, a showjumping champion who sued her mother’s doctor for allowing her to be born gained the right to millions in damages.
Evie Toombes, 20, was born with spina bifida and sometimes has to be hooked up to tubes 24 hours a day.
Despite this, she has made a name for herself in show jumping, where she competes against both crippled and able-bodied riders.
She also had meetings with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Evie, from Skegness, Lincolnshire, sued Dr Philip Mitchell last month for failing to advise her mother Caroline Toombes, 50, to take critical vitamins before getting pregnant in a “wrongful conception” damages claim.
She said that if the doctor had told her mother that she needed to take folic acid supplements to reduce the danger of her daughter developing spina bifida, she would have delayed getting pregnant until she had done so, and Evie would never have been born.
Judge Rosalind Coe QC backed Evie’s case and awarded her the right to a large compensation sum in a landmark judgement in London yesterday.
Her lawyers have stated that the amount Evie is demanding has not yet been determined, but that it will be “significant” because it will cover the expense of her lifelong care needs, according to Dailymail.
The judge found that if Evie’s mother had been “given with the correct indicated advice, she would have delayed attempts to conceive,” she would have “delayed attempts to conceive.”
