A para-showjumping star who sued her mum's GP - claiming she should not have been born - has won the right to millions in damages in a landmark High Court ruling today.
Evie Toombes, 20, was born with spina bifida and sometimes spends 24 hours-a-day connected up to tubes, but has forged a career in showjumping, competing against both disabled and able-bodied riders.
Last month, in a unique 'wrongful conception' damages claim, she sued her mum's GP, Dr Philip Mitchell, over his failure to advise her mother to take vital supplements before getting pregnant.
She claimed that, had the doctor told her mum, Caroline Toombes, that she needed to take folic acid supplements to minimise the risk of spina bifida affecting her baby, she would have put off getting pregnant until she had done so - and as a result Evie would never have been born at all.
And in a landmark ruling in London today, Judge Rosalind Coe QC backed Evie's case and awarded her the right to a huge compensation payout.
Her lawyers earlier said the amount Evie is claiming has not yet been calculated, but confirmed that it would be 'big' since it would cover the cost of her extensive care needs for life.
Evie Toombes, pictured with her mother Caroline Toombes. Evie claimed that, had the doctor told her mother that she needed to take folic acid supplements to minimise the risk of spina bifida affecting her baby, she would have put off getting pregnant until she had done so - meaning Evie would never have been born at all
Evie Toombes, 20, was born suffering from spina bifida but has forged a career in showjumping, competing against both disabled and able-bodied riders
She had sued for 'wrongful conception' and for 'having been born in a damaged state,' her barrister Susan Rodway QC told the court.
Ruling, the judge found that Dr Mitchell had not told Mrs Toombes, of Skegness, Lincolnshire, of the importance of taking folic acid supplements before getting pregnant.
And if she had been told, she would have delayed conceiving and instead had a different, totally healthy, baby, the judge added.
During the trial last month, the court heard that 50-year-old Mrs Toombes - who is also a keen horsewoman - had gone to see Dr Mitchell at the Hawthorn practice to discuss her plans to have her first baby in February 2001.
'This was a very precious decision to start a family, because she herself had lost her parents when she was young,' Mrs Rodway told the judge.
'They had been refraining from sexual intercourse until after they had received advice at this consultation.'
But despite discussing folic acid during the consultation, Mrs Toombes claimed that she was not told by Dr Mitchell of its importance in spina bifida prevention.
She told the judge that the doctor had told her to go home and have 'lots of sex', which she found 'somewhat blunt.'
'He told me it was not necessary,' she told
