Ecstasy girl's mother settles with hospital out of court
NICK THORPE and SUSAN LUMSDEN

THE mother of Michelle Paul, the Aberdeen teenager who was refused a liver
transplant after experimenting with ecstasy, has reached an estimated £5,000
outofcourt settlement with the hospital that first treated her.

Carolann Paul said yesterday she felt "very let down" by the way her
daughter's case had ended, but could not afford to refuse the settlement
with Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. The exact terms of the deal were being kept
secret, but the sum is thought to reflect the legal minimum for the death of
a child.

Mrs Paul has always insisted that the decision not to list her 15yearold
daughter for a liver transplant was a "moralistic" one taken in the light of
the family's background of drugtaking, although that was rejected by
doctors and by the findings of a fatal accident inquiry in July.

However, the sheriff ruled then that staff at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary had
initially made a "catastrophic" error of judgment in failing to carry out a
routine test which would have warned them that Michelle was suffering from
severe liver failure after taking half an ecstasy tablet at a rave.

Michelle, of Upper Mastrick Way, Aberdeen, was subsequently transferred to
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where she died in the transplant unit on 27
November, 1995.

Aberdeen Royal Infirmary refused to discuss the terms of the settlement, but
stressed it was not an admission of liability.

Mrs Paul said she was disappointed that she had not had another chance to
bring the issues surrounding her daughter's death into the open.

"I am very disappointed but I don't have the resources to take it any
further. I have done what I can. I was very angry initially but now I just
feel quite let down," she said.

The past two years had taken her family "to hell and back", she said, adding
that she was hoping to get back to an anonymous life.

"This has been a terrible time for all of us and I hope other parents do not
have to go through this," she said.

Sheriff Graeme Warner's 221page report did not support Mrs Paul's view that
a transplant surgeon, Dr Hilary Sanfey, had refused her daughter a
transplant on moral grounds, finding that medical reasons alone led to a
team decision not to operate.

However, it did call for an urgent review of how transplant organs were
allocated and Mrs Paul, a reformed drug addict, was last night drawing some
comfort from that.

"Maybe some good did come out of it," she said. "The sheriff did make some
recommendations so hopefully they will be followed through."

After yesterday's settlement there will be no further action against either
Aberdeen or Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, which was praised in the sheriff's
report for its "extremely high standards of professionalism".