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Accident & Emergency
Case 1
Mrs C was admitted as an emergency by ambulance to the Defendant Trust with
rigors (shaking), locked jaw, breathing difficulties and cyanosis (lack of
oxygen causing a blue tinge around nose and mouth). She was admitted to the
ward and the junior doctor on the ward took blood tests. The blood tests
showed an extremely low calcium level. Mrs C had a respiratory arrest and
died. An inquest was held. The post-mortem showed the cause of death to be a
consequence of hypocalcaemia (low calcium). The coroner recorded a verdict of
system failure as no one in the pathology laboratory or on the ward had
chased up the low calcium result. In addition there was a communication
failure between the various doctors involved. A case was brought under the
Fatal Accidents Act on behalf of the husband and two children of the deceased
and also a case on behalf of the estate under the Law Reform Act. The case on
behalf of the husband was for the loss of wife’s services and financial
dependency from her loss of earnings.
The claim settled without proceedings being issued. Damages awarded of
£100,000 including statutory bereavement award and funeral expenses.
Case 2
Mr D attended his local A&E department having fallen over and hurt his
hand and wrist. He was examined and told that it was just a sprain and to
take painkillers and that it would heal in time naturally.
After a month Mr D’s hand was still painful and so he returned to the
casualty department at that hospital. This time his hand and wrist were
x-rayed and the x-ray showed a fracture of the scaphoid bone in the wrist. Mr
D needed to have surgery to insert metal pins into the wrist as the fracture
would now not heal properly.
The claim was that the hospital, on Mr D’s initial visit should have either
x-rayed the wrist or at the very least put the wrist in a plaster cast and
carried out another x-ray in 2 weeks time. Scaphoid fractures are notorious
for not always being visible immediately but by two weeks any fracture would
have been visible.
Had the hospital acted accordingly Mr D would have made a full and uneventful
recovery within 6 weeks. Instead he had to have surgery and his wrist took
longer to heal and he had a permanent slight loss of function although this
did not materially affect his life. Case settled for £15,000 including some
loss of earnings.
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Contacts:
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Oxford:
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Tracy Norris-Evans
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01865 268632
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email
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Oxford: |
Richard Coleman |
01865 268631 |
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Oxford: |
Judith Leach |
01865 268609 |
email |
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accident
claims