A FATHER who suffered terrible brain damage after being given the wrong medication at Severall Hospital's Maple Ward has been awarded a £6.2million payout.

Christopher Lines, 33, was prescribed excessive doses of the wrong medicine in June 2008, an error admitted by North Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

The settlement agreed with the trust will pay Mr Lines a £2.1million lump sum, plus £205,000 a year for the rest of his life to pay for his care. This is said to be a sum equivalent to a total package of £6.2million.

The settlement was approved the High Court in London on Friday. Judge Martin McKenna praised the devotion of Mr Lines’s parents, Steve and and Carole, and noted they had not tried to claim anything for themselves.

The court was told Mr Lines was given drugs that reduced the level of oxygen in his blood.

However, he was not monitored appropriately, which meant the mistake was not noticed and he was left unconscious for 18 hours in the hospital’s Maple Ward.

The brain injury has left Mr Lines, from Colchester, entirely dependant on others for his daily needs. He has only limited communication and use of his arms and legs and cannot look after his young son.

For the past 18 months, Mr Lines, has been living with his parents. He now hopes to move into a bungalow of his own next to his parents’ home.

The settlement means work can begin to adapt the home to his needs, including ramps, wider doors and a hydrotherapy pool. The court was told NHS solicitors had made a full and frank admission of liability at an early stage.

A spokesman for the health trust said: “The award of compensation will enable Mr Lines to receive suitable care throughout his life.

“The trust has previously admitted liability and apologised to him and his family.”

Julian Wilson, head of the clinical negligence team at the Lines family lawyers, Thompson, Smith and Puxon, said: “In the vast majority of cases, medical treatment in this country is carried out very competently.

“However. in Christopher’s case, a series of mistakes led to a catastrophic brain injury to him, from which he will never recover.

“Christopher’s parents’ main concern in this litigation has always been to secure Christopher’s future, and this settlement achieves that.”