A TEENAGE girl has received £1.5 million compensation after a doctor at King George Hospital failed to spot a brain tumour which left her blind.

Tatum Rock, 16, was robbed of her sight after a radiologist missed the benign growth during a routine brain scan.

The youngster had been taken to the hospital after banging her head in a fall, but signs of the problem were not spotted - leading to her losing most of her vision within months.

The case comes at the worst possible time for Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Hospitals Trust (BHRT) which manages King George, after it was named the worst performing body of its type in the UK by a government watchdog last month.

BHRT was rated bottom out of the nearly 400 trusts across the country for its overall quality and financial management by the Care Quality Commission.

It was the only authority to receive a 'weak' rating in both categories.

The troubled organisation was also labelled 'underperforming' by NHS inspectors in August, and recorded one of the lowest patient satisfaction scores in the UK in a Healthcare Commission survey at the beginning of the year.

Tatum, of Edenbridge, Kent, is currently being educated at the Royal National Institute of Blind People school in Worcester - and is thought to be planning to go on to university after her studies are over.

BHRT has yet to comment.