Injuries Direct - Personal Injury Claims

Hundreds of patients who were treated at Stafford Hospital are making compensation claims against it.

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust is currently facing legal charges following an investigation that showed patients were grossly neglected, ignored and generally mistreated during their stays at the hospital.

Approximately 220 compensation claims are currently being made, all for clinical negligence and/or breaches of human rights.

The investigation showed that patients were left in soiled bedclothes, unwashed and in a state of undress in front of other patients and visitors.

It was also revealed that patient’s families had to clean lavatories and public areas themselves, food and drinks were left out of reach and patients resorted to drinking out of vases to quench their thirst.

Julie Bailey, who formed the campaign group Cure The NHS after her mum died during her stay at Stafford Hospital said: “I am not in the least bit surprised at the amount of people who could put in claims. It just shows the extremity of the harm they were going over the years.”

If you have been affected by clinical negligence at a Mid Staffordshire hospital, or any other UK hospital, contact the Injuries Direct team for professional assistance.

A police officer from Hampshire is to make compensation claims against Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust.

PC Miles Wilson, who had to have his leg amputated after hurting his knee, claims that if Southampton General Hospital has acted sooner his leg could have been saved.

PC Wilson claims that the hospital’s hesitancy in taking appropriate action meant that they failed to detect an artery blockage, which led to the amputation being required.

He said: “I am trying to stay positive. However, I am finding things incredibly frustrating. It is very hard to think that the need for amputation might have been avoided.”

The hospital made PC Wilson wait for an agonising five days before finally making him take an MRI scan to see what was causing the problem in his right leg. In this time a doctor told him that he could not diagnose him until test results had been received.

However, during his wait he developed a serious infection and began to suffer from hallucinations and high temperatures. He was told that he could not be seen for his MRI scan sooner due to a backlog.

When a different doctor saw him after five days, he immediately realised there was a problem and organised an emergency MRI scan. The next day he was taken for surgery, but when he woke he had had his leg amputated just above the knee.

PC Wilson’s compensation claim solicitors said: “For a young man to lose a leg is devastating but to know that the loss could have been avoided by proper care is worse. The delays were unacceptable and we will be seeking compensation.”

Pennine Acute Trust has forked out over £3million in medical negligence compensation during 2008/2009.

The Trust which runs hospitals in Rochdale, Bury, Manchester and Oldham paid out the third highest amount of compensation claims in Britain over the year.

Over £2million of the £3.14million total was paid in damages to patients who had suffered negligence in departments such as cardiology and paediatrics. The rest of the total went on legal costs, with claimants costing £794,875 and defence costs amounting to £403,984.

However, the chief executive of the NHS litigation Authority, which manages all compensation claims made against the organisation doesn’t believe that this is a true representation of negligence over the year.

He said: “That doesn’t mean that they have been particularly negligent. The claim we settle in any year may relate to events in previous years, up to 15 or even 20 years before.”

Medical Director of the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust blamed the high number of compensation claims on the amount of patients they deal with every year. She said: “larger trusts who serve a larger population are clearly more likely to receive compensation claims than smaller trusts or those providing low-risk care. Our priority is to provide the very best-care for each patient on every occasion.”

She added: “The vast majority of the thousands of patients that we treat and care for every day receive and experience a good quality, safe and effective healthcare service.”

With five hospitals, the Trust serves around 800,000 people and employs approximately 10,000 staff.

A man who found out that his life-long disabilities may have been caused by medical negligence at birth is battling to make a claim for compensation.

Cambridge post-graduate Julius Whiston, 35, suffers from cerebral palsy and has been confined to a wheelchair since he was born.

Lawyers for Mr Whitson claim that he was starved of oxygen during his birth at the Queen’s Charlotte’s Hospital in Shepherd’s Bush in 1974. They say this was caused by a junior doctor who spent too long trying to deliver him using forceps.

Despite his disabilities, Mr Whitson won a scholarship at Eton and later achieved a degree and a PhD in mathematics at Pembroke College in Cambridge.

It wasn’t until his early 20’s when his condition began to deteriorate rapidly that a compensation claim was launched against the NHS. He hopes that any award of damages would go towards paying for his future care.

In May last year Mr Whitson looked to take a step closer to securing his medical negligence compensation payout when a judge dismissed claims that he had left it too late to sue. Now however, the NHS is attempting to have this decision overturned.

Victims of birth injuries are usually required to make their claim before they reach the age of 21 if they have not been mentally impaired.

In this case the judge made an exception to the rule as it was only when Mr Whitson’s mother, who works as a trained midwife, realised that his injuries could have been caused by negligence at his birth in 2005.

If the case is won Mr Whitson’s payout could run into millions of pounds. This decision will be made at a later date.

105 people have been awarded medical negligence compensation after being wrongly diagnosed of having epilepsy.

Dr Andrew Holton declared more than 600 patients as epileptic between 1990 and 2001. Around 500 of these consisted of children that he had put on the wrong medication.

Dr Holton prescribed cocktails of debilitating drugs to youngsters, many of whom were simply suffering from headaches at the time, or were just naturally badly behaved.

He was suspended back in 2001 following a number of complaints made against him since 1995. In 2006 the General Medical Council’s Fitness to Practice Panel ruled that his professional performance had been ‘seriously deficient’, although he was allowed to return to work under certain conditions. This included a ban on working with children.

Working as a paediatric neurologist at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, it was later found that he did not actually hold any formal qualifications to treat those types of illnesses.

Many of the children were said to experience side-effects to the drugs which made them ‘zombie-like’. The payouts in medical negligence compensation will range from a few thousand pounds to one of approximately £240,000.

£1.1million in injury compensation will go to survivors of the thalidomide scandal in Northern Ireland.

The drug was used to treat pregnant women in the 1950’s and 1960’s to help with morning sickness and insomnia. However, it was quickly withdrawn from circulation after babies were born with limb deformities and other physical and neurological damage.

Thalidomide was widely used all over the world between 1957 and 1961. Although it is unknown how many people overall have been affected by the drug, it’s believed to be between 10,000 and 20,000

The announcement for Northern Irish victims comes after junior health minister Mike O’Brien announced that compensation for those affected in England will soon become available.

A thalidomide survivor from Northern Ireland Paul Anderson said of the potential injury compensation: “I very much welcome the positive response from our government. It will make a significant difference to the lives of thalidomiders.”

An ex-prisoner has won her clinical negligence claim against the Ministry of Justice.

Cheryl Carter, 34, developed breast cancer during her time at Cookham Wood prison in Kent in 2005. She found a lump in her breast and told a prison medical officer on three separate occasions.

Despite this, she was never referred for specialist medical treatment. It was argued that if she had been, she would have a far better prognosis on her release when she was able to visit her GP than she does now.

The Ministry of Justice denied liability, saying that all reasonable care was used and there had been no breach of duty whilst she was in prison.

The case judge Sir Christopher Holland said that there was no reason that Ms Carter was not a truthful, reliable witness who had matured as a person whilst serving time and because of her traumatic ordeal.

A MOJ Spokesperson said: “We sought to defend the matter, however, the court found in the former prisoner’s favour with regard to breach of duty and refused permission for the Ministry of Justice to appeal.”

Ms Carter’s clinical negligence claim amount is yet to be decided.

A woman who had a pair of forceps left inside her following an operation is making a surgical error claim against the hospital that treated her.

Donna Bowett, who works as a nurse herself in Worcester, was having a routine procedure to remove her gall bladder. When she was discharged she still had the seven-inch metal tool inside her.

Ms Bowett, 39, was left in agony after the medical blunder, telling The Sun how she was left in ‘horrendous pain’.

She said: “I still can’t believe it’s happened in this day and age. It might have damaged my internal organs.”

The forceps were only revealed when she had an MRI scan and an X-ray to discover the cause of the pain.

It’s now very likely that Ms Bowett could be awarded surgical error compensation after issuing legal action against Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

Chief Executive of the Trust, John Rostill said: “We would like to apologise unreservedly to Ms Bowett for any pain or distress she has suffered. In the 12 months since this extremely unusual incident we have taken a number of steps to further improve standards of safety.”

Prescription drug errors could have played a part in the death of Hollywood actress Brittany Murphy it has been suggested.

Murphy, who died of pneumonia in December, could have avoided death had she visited a doctor sooner to sort out the problems said assistant chief coroner Ed Winter.

The star’s pneumonia may have been exasperated by a mix of prescription drug errors and anaemia said the coroner, though he would not reveal exactly what drugs may have caused the death.

Murphy’s husband Simon Monjack said that she had not abused prescription drugs, and had not suffered from an eating disorder. However, she had been experiencing flu-like symptoms on the days leading up to her death.

Last month Mr Monjack revealed how the actress took several prescriptions including anti-seizure drugs and Robitussen, which she got from over the counter.

The official verdict of the 32-year-old’s death was accidental and the coroner found no evidence of any wrongdoing.

A recent University of London study has showed how prescription errors are worryingly common within UK hospitals.

Research carried out in five hospitals in the capital revealed that over 13.2% of prescriptions written for children are done so in error. Even more startling is the rate of nurses who administered drugs to children – often in injection form. Nearly 1 in 5 (19.1%) were found the have made an error when making a judgement of what medicine was required.

Fortunately the majority of prescription errors were picked up when pharmacists cross-checked the prescriptions, therefore the vast majority of children never received the dosage prescribed to them.

However if the drugs had reached the children the results could have lead to serious problems, possibly with fatal consequences.

One child in particular in the study, who suffered from epilepsy, was prescribed 10 times more of the anti-convulsant drug than they should have been.

Professor Ian Wong, one of the authors of the study said: “It was over the weekend so the pharmacist wasn’t around and nobody checked the prescription. On the Monday the pharmacist noticed straight away and stopped the treatment.”

Professor Wong blamed the fact that drugs are not tested on children and doses are not designed with them in mind. As well as this, many of the child prescriptions are made for injections and not the normal tablet form that is easier to judge the dosage of.

He is now calling for rules that only allow pharmacists to make up injections, meaning nurses are able to dedicate more time to caring for patients.

Overall the study showed 391 prescription errors – a 13.2% incorrect rate. The most common mistakes included incomplete prescriptions and dosing errors.