A MAN has been awarded more than £300,000 after ambulance staff left him lying in a hall-way for nine hours with a serious head injury because they thought he was drunk.

Richard Laws, 32, ended up in a coma for a month and now requires full-time care for the rest of his life.

He is confined to a wheelchair, unable to work and suffers memory loss as a result of the emergency services' blunder six years ago.

Winchester High Court heard that a second ambulance crew found Mr Laws, of Ryde on the Isle of Wight, still unconscious in the hallway of his brother's house, also in Ryde. He had suffered a fall.

Mr Laws was found to have a brain injury as well as a collapsed lung after undergoing a scan at St Mary's Hospital, Newport.

His lawyers claimed he had suffered secondary brain damage as a result of the delay in treatment.

Isle of Wight Community Healthcare NHS Trust admitted the negligence of the first ambulance crew, who failed to take Mr Laws to hospital, but denied any further serious injury was suffered as a result of the delay.

Awarding Mr Laws £313,592, Mr Robert Browne said: "It is overwhelmingly probable that Mr Laws did suffer slight but significant secondary brain damage as a result of being left unattended after his original and primary injury.

"In my view the incremental damage was significant in that it probably made the plaintiff's disabilities noticeably worse overall."

Christopher Gardner, for Mr Laws, said: "People who have got head injuries should be taken to hospital at the earliest moment. If you don't at the earliest possible moment give them oxygen and other intensive care there is a real risk, in this case inevitable, that the brain damage will be worse."

Mr Laws, who did not attend the hearing, said in a statement: "I'm very happy with the result of the case and very relieved that the core proceedings are now concluded.

"It's six years since my accident -I now feel I can put the past behind me and concentrate on my future."

A spokesman for the trust said: "We once again extend our sincere apologies to Mr Laws for failing to transport him to hospital in accordance with ambulance protocol.

"We accept the decision of the court that although Mr Laws had suffered a substantial primary brain injury following a fall the failure of an initial attending ambulance crew to transport him to hospital exacer-bated his condition."

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