Brain-damaged E-coli boy  wins £2.6 million in damages award

Four-year-old on school visit caught bug at open farm A SEVEN-year-old boy who suffered permanent brain damage after contracting the E-coli bug at a London Colney farm has been awarded £2.6 million damages. Tom Dowling was four at the time he visited Bowman's Open Farm in London Colney near St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, in June 1997 and picked up the bug "in its most formidable form". He was paralysed by the disease, spent 12 days in a coma and suffered serious and permanent brain damage as a result. Through his father John Dowling, Tom sued Bowman's Farm Ltd and the London Borough of Barnet after the bug left him paraplegic and prey to agonising seizures. The defendants jointly accepted 95 per cent liability in the case in December 1999 and agreed to settle Tom's case for £2.6 million damages. Lord Brennan, QC for Tom who now lives in Friern Barnet and had been on a trip to the farm with Edgware Infants School, North London, England, said in London's High Court on Monday that the boy had contracted the most formidable form of the bug from which he almost died.  The bug was traced to a goat on the farm. He showed the judge a picture of Tom wearing a special jacket to keep his back stiff.  The youngster showed "no signs of response to his family, no pleasure, no suffering".  He suffered kidney failure, damage to his central nervous system and went into a coma for 12 days.  Now aged seven he is wheelchair-bound and needs 24-hour care. Tom's parents had subsequently split up in the summer of 1998 leaving his mother Tracy to bear the primary burden of caring for him. At an earlier hearing, the court heard that Tom's was not the first case of E-coli contracted at the farm.  A six-year-old and a seven-year-old had contracted a mild form of the infection earlier in 1997. After the incidents, the local education authority had issued a circular warning but failed to identify the farm, Lord Brennan said.  He said farm managers had failed to institute a proper hygiene system to provide washing facilities for visiting children. Approving the settlement of Tom's case on Monday, Mr. Justice Buckley expressed his admiration for the way Tom had been cared for in such a devoted and resourceful manner, largely by his mother.  He commended both parents saying: "I wish them and Tom himself all the very best". Tracy Dowling declined to comment after the hearing but her solicitor Jill Greenfield said: "She is content.  It is a settlement that will allow her to take care of her son in a way he should be looked after.  He needs substantial care and a new home." The settlement meant Tom would now receive professional nursing care and live a decent a life as possible," she added. Andrew Wolfe, Bowman's Farm manager, said after the hearing: "We are relieved that the settlement has been agreed and will allow Tom's family to look after him and care for him in the future. -Source: Herts Advertiser Thursday January 25th, 2001 Page 3(main text) London Metro, Tuesday, January 23, 2001 Page 6 (photo and emendations) Back to Top