A 12-year-old boy from Malta has won £4.25 million compensation after a UK hospital failed to diagnose an inherited disorder when he was a baby.

The condition went undetected for a further 12 months and, as a result, Luke Attard suffered brain damage, reports the Observer.

At a High Court hearing, Dr Gwilym Hosking was accused of failing to carry a routine blood test on Luke which would have identified a rare form of a genetic disorder phenylketonuria (PKU).

Specialist staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital eventually diagnosed the condition.

According to NHS Direct, PKU is a metabolic disorder which manifests itself in an enzyme defect rendering the sufferer unable to produce the essential amino acid tyrosine.

Dr Hosking died in October 2006. In May that year, Luke’s parents reached a settlement on the basis that Dr Hosking was 90 per cent liable.

Luke now lives with his family in East Sussex. Two of his three brothers also have PKU.