(delivering the judgment of the Court): The appellant, Yang Salbiah bt. Meor Rasdi (Salbiah) — the only appellant, despite the heading — is a very unfortunate young girl. She was run down by a bus and though the visible injuries sustained were a few abrasions and contusions, the end result was disastrous. She became, in that awful but very descriptive term, vegetative. She had in fact sustained severe traumatic cerebral damage and from being a happy normal healthy and intelligent school girl she has become a severely mentally retarded child, with very little awareness of her surroundings and no ability to respond socially or to control herself physically. She is unable to manage wilfully her bladder and her bowel functions. Born on May 10, 1968, she was at the time of the accident, a bit more than 7 years old. Four years later, just before the trial of the action at a neurological test conducted by a consultant, she was assessed at a mental age of 3 years. She is now a little better than a vegetable. Her condition is irreversible with hardly any prospects of improvement, but the poignancy of her situation is that her span of life is in no way shortened.