A WHEELCHAIR-bound teenager has won a £2.5m payout after he was left brain-damaged a day after his birth.

Nathan Preece, from Bosley’s Orchard, Grove, has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism and suffers seizures.

But the payout, secured at the High Court, will help with the cost of caring for the 19-year-old for the rest of his life, his family said last night.

His mother Wendy, 46, said: “This money will secure care for Nathan’s future and it means we can finally draw a line under it.”

Nathan’s parents claimed he had been left in the condition because a local GP failed to send his mother to hospital when she showed signs of giving birth prematurely.

The Abingdon and Witney College pupil was born at just 31 weeks in June 1990 at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital .

He can only communicate using limited facial signals, basic signing and a touch-screen computer.

His lawyers accused the family’s former GP, Dr David Wise, of failing to send Mrs Preece to hospital when she came to him with signs of pre-term labour.

Her son was born hours later and the next day suffered a collapsed lung, which starved his brain of oxygen.

But at the High Court in London, the family’s lawyers reached an out-of-court settlement with Dr Wise over allegations of negligence.

Dr Wise, who still practices at Grove Medical Centre, has not admitted liability.

And Mrs Preece, who provides round-the-clock care for her son, said she has no ill feelings towards the doctor.

She added: “I am sure it is a very difficult thing for Dr Wise. Like us, he has to live with it every day, but in a different way.”

After a month in hospital, doctors told Mr and Mrs Preece Nathan would probably spend his life in a vegetative state.

Mrs Preece said: “I was pulling my hair out after about two months of being at home. All my friends’ babies were starting to roll over, it was very difficult.”

The family first sought the help of a solicitor in 1994, but it was not until 2000 that legal action was launched.

Nathan’s father Richard, 54, said: “We just wanted to know what had happened. The day Nathan was born he was fine, then suddenly he went downhill.

“The solicitor looked at Nathan’s medical notes and agreed to take on the case.”

The couple said Mrs Preece should have been sent to hospital when she showed signs of pre-term labour. Instead, she was sent home after being told she was suffering Braxton Hicks contractions, which are routinely experienced by pregnant women mid-term.

They believe if she had been sent straight to hospital, medics could have prolonged the pregnancy and Nathan would have been born without health problems.

Dr Wise, 61, who is retiring on Friday, said: “I regret all the circumstances about Nathan’s birth, whatever the responsibilities, which I cannot comment on because of doctor-patient confidentiality.

“I hope there is no ill feeling as I still see the family often.”

Mrs Preece said the payout would be used to ensure Nathan’s continued care and the family hoped to move into a new home.

The money will come from the Medical Defence Union, an organisation set up and owned by medics to defend them in court hearings.