A WOMAN left with severe brain damage from the age of two months after a hospital's alleged negligence has been awarded £1.75 million in damages.

The family of Maria Younger can now finally afford to provide the level of treatment she needs 24-hours a day after a fight for justice lasting two decades.

Maria -- now aged 20 -- was taken to Preston Royal Hospital with a cough as a baby in 1982 but started to develop breathing problems as she was being admitted.

It is claimed the hospital did not offer her the appropriate care or the correct facilities. The legal team acting for her mother Mary, of Great Lever, claimed that Maria was left for more than 24 hours before a decision was made to secure her an airway.

She was later transferred to Booth Hall Children's Hospital but had been left profoundly brain damaged and developed cerebral palsy, it is alleged.

Today Maria is confined to a wheelchair and cannot talk, walk, eat or drink without help. She will be 21 in the New Year.

Her family did not seek legal advice for 17 years -- feeling they would not have a case.

The family's solicitor Stephen McGuire said: "It is a real tragic case for everyone. Her mother never assumed that she could take legal action.

"She thought that if the hospital had done something wrong they would have told her. She was labouring under that misapprehension for years.

"The mother -- who has eight other children -- has spent the past 20 years struggling to give her daughter the care she needs."

Judge Mr Justice Holland awarded the £1.75 million at the High Court in Manchester yesterday.

The case against Preston Acute Hospitals NHS was settled on Thursday, November 28, just five days before a trial was due to start.

But there are still issues over negligence and what caused Maria's brain damage. Mr McGuire, from Blackburn solicitors Cunningham Turner, said the case had been defended by the hospital throughout. He said the sum would have been £2.5 million if hospital chiefs admitted the full liability.

Geoffrey Tattersall, QC, for the family, said: "There was a serious risk we would fail, which would have meant the mother -- who has brought up this child with great love and care for nearly 20 years -- having to continue doing so. That would have been a calamity."

It is believed the family are to use the sum to buy or modify a house for Maria.

The family lived in Preston at the time of the incident but moved to Blackburn before settling in Bolton six years ago.

Mr McGuire added: "They have spent their lives looking for appropriate facilities for which to care for Maria. Now with the money, a house can be bought."

Tony Curtis, chief executive of Lancashire Teaching Hospital's NHS Trust, said: "We are pleased that agreement has been reached in connection with the events at the Royal Preston Hospital in respect of Maria's treatment in 1982.

"We are sorry that Maria and her family suffered this tragedy and we wish them well for the future."