The parents of the first child to die after drinking baby milk laced with a lethal chemical have succeeded in winning compensation.

Chinese parents win toxic milk payout
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Yi Yongsheng and Jiao Hongfang, from Gangu in Gansu province, said they had accepted £20,000 after their five-month-old son died from kidney failure.

Twenty-two Chinese dairy companies admitted in September that they had sold milk tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical that causes the formation of kidney stones and crystals in children.

So far at least six children have died and a further 300,000 infants have been sickened.

Yi and Jiao's son died in May. By accepting the compensation money from Sanlu, which has filed for bankruptcy, they have given up the right to sue the company. Shen Xianlei, one of their lawyers, said the couple was unlikely to get more than 200,000 yuan by taking their case to court in Gansu.

Dong Junming, another lawyer working for the couple, said: "Legal procedures are too complicated for them, which made them decide to take the money."

The payout was part of a widely-criticised scheme announced by the government last month. Under the current plans, families whose children died would receive 200,000 yuan, while others would receive between 2,000 and 30,000 yuan depending on the severity of the illness."