Five-year-old Eoin McCallig from Donegal suffered catastrophic injuries at birth, after being deprived of oxygen for 20 minutes during labour at the Coombe hospital in 2012.
Eoin's parents, Anthony and Jean, were awarded €15 million in compensation last week. However, they have been critical of the HSE for fighting the case for so long.
Anthony joined us to talk about the case and Eoin's quality of life. He has quadriplegic cerebral palsy, which means he can't speak and has poor motor function. Despite all of this, he is a very bright, happy child.
Anthony described the emotions he and Jean experienced when they found out something was wrong: "You're in total shock - you're expecting a healthy baby. It hit us like a ton of bricks."
There was no cure and nothing you could do about it. It was heartbreaking. For the first eight months we were like zombies. We were thinking, why us?"
The situation also placed a great strain on Eoin's parents health-wise, with Jean being diagnosed with breast cancer. She had cancer before Eoin was born but it came back - Anthony believes it may have been brought on by the stress. Fortunately, he says, she is fine now.
Anthony explained that there was a breach of duty on the hospital's part when Eoin was born. They failed to spot irregularities, with the result that he "was born blue."
He was very dissatisfied with a meeting they had, during which there was an attempt to deter them from taking legal action. "We were in that room for an hour and not once did they ask how Eoin was."
Anthony and Jean did sue. The legal action took five years, but last week they were awarded compensation. However, although the money will help, it won't change the challenges Eoin will have to face throughout his life.
"What Eoin's lost, he'll never get back. He'll never experience the world the way other kids have. He also has his life expectancy cut by more than 30 years. All the money in the world won't change that."
Anthony says they will use the money to pay for carers, which will give them a break so that they ultimately have more energy to care for Eoin. They also want to build him a pool - as he loves the water and is able to get his exercise that way - and hopefully have a holiday for the first time since Eoin was born.
"We want to give him as normal a life as we can."
