A NINE-year-old Gwent girl is suing an NHS trust after allegedly being starved of oxygen at birth.

Sophie Williams suffers from severe and complex difficulties and will remain totally dependent on others for the rest of her life, a High Court writ claims.

The writ was issued yesterday in London's High Court and made publicly available through her mother, Joanne Williams, of Coed Cumlas,The Highway, Pontypool.

If Sophie had been delivered just ten minutes earlier on February 19, 1995, her intellect would largely have been spared, and she would have kept some use of her hands, according to the writ.

And it claims that if she had been delivered 23 minutes earlier, she probably would have been born without any problems.

Sophie will never be able to work because of her injuries, which include cognitive and communication problems, it says.

She is unlikely to be able to form or sustain relationships, and she will remain totally dependent on her carers for all activities, says the writ.

Sophie is claiming damages from West Wiltshire Primary Care Trust.

Mrs Williams says she went to Greenways Maternity Unit at Chippenham Community Hospital believing she was in labour, but was sent home on February 18, 1995.

She returned later that day and Sophie was born at 11.23am on February 19, and needed resuscitating.

A tube was placed in her lungs to help her breathe, and she began breathing spontaneously 35 minutes after her birth.

Later that day she was transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit at Bath's Royal United Hospital.

Sophie was discharged home on March 3, 1995, after being diagnosed with hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy.

The writ accuses the trust of breaching its duty by failing to keep adequate records of her and her mother's condition, failing to respond to signs of possible foetal distress, failing to detect changes which showed she was possibly being deprived of oxygen, and failing to advise an emergency delivery with forceps or vacuum extraction.

It also accuses the trust of failing to manage her delivery with reasonable care and skill and of causing her injuries.

Similar cases across the UK have generally resulted in millions of pounds in compensation pay-outs.

No-one was available from the trust to comment.