Medical Negligence News

The family of an elderly patient who died of an insulin overdose administered by a hospital nurse has been awarded almost £50,000 in compensation. Doris Ludlam, 80, was one of four elderly patients who were given lethal injections of insulin by nurse...

A woman who was left severely brain damaged after a doctor gave an incorrect diagnosis of her condition has been awarded more than £4 million in compensation. In 2002, Cristina Malcolm collapsed at her home in County Durham with a severe headache....

A former contestant on Celebrity Big Brother and frontman of pop group Dead or Alive has won damages of £450,000 after a cosmetic surgeon who treated his lips admitted negligence. Pete Burns, 49, was treated by Dr Maurizio Viel at a London clinic...

Two brothers have won a substantial undisclosed amount in compensation after blood transfusions they underwent at the Royal Liverpool Hospital were found to have poisoned them. Paul and Liam McNeely, 39 and 35 respectively, both suffer from a rare form of...

The family of a young man who suffered a severe brain injury at birth has been awarded £3.8 million in compensation. The award comes years after the family was wrongly advised that it was not possible to bring a claim after their son’s third...

An assistant social worker from Stockton-on-Tees has been awarded compensation after she was given more than the recommended dose of antibiotics. The error has resulted in permanent damage to her inner ear. The 60-year-old, who does not wish to be...

The family of a man who died after a routine medical procedure went wrong has won £12,000 in compensation. Alun Stanton, 71, was admitted to East Glamorgan Hospital complaining of shortness of breath and was diagnosed with pneumonia. His family was...

A man who attempted to commit suicide has won compensation of £90,000 after the hospital that treated him accidentally gave him an overdose of a drug designed to neutralise the pills he had taken. Michael Dexter, 58, had become depressed after leaving...

An eight-year-old boy who developed cerebral palsy after mistakes were made during his birth has been awarded a damages settlement worth millions of pounds. Because of the medical blunders, the child, known only as ‘A’, has severe disabilities....

The amount of compensation paid to people left with surgical equipment inside them after they have undergone surgery has risen dramatically in recent years. At the same time, the number of patients killed as a result of hospital mistakes has also increased...

A woman has been awarded damages after she was given poor advice by a doctor treating her for injuries she sustained in a car accident. Lucy Borez, 58, was travelling as a passenger in a car that was hit from the side by a 4 x 4 vehicle. She sustained...

A Shropshire man has won a six-figure sum in compensation for medical negligence which led to his wife's premature death. Mark Taylor, who lives in Church Stretton, also received an apology from the consultant at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital who had treated...

A boy who suffered heart failure as a result of a delay in diagnosing his medical condition has won compensation that could run to millions of pounds. Shoaib Dawlatshahi, who was nearly three years of age at the time of his illness, was admitted to the...

A boy who suffered brain damage at birth has had a settlement of £8.26 million approved at the High Court. Tristian Blomfield will receive the money as an initial lump sum of £2.23 million plus annual payments of £42,000 each year up to...

A middle-aged woman who was referred to hospital by her GP, who suspected she had deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), was given the normal medical tests before she was given the all clear and sent home. The next day, however, it became obvious that something was...

The widow of a highly-regarded documentary film maker has won a High Court battle against three doctors who failed to diagnose and treat her husband's hypertension. Nick Rossiter, who was 43 when he died, had been a patient at the doctors’ surgery...

The family of a Polish man, who died of botulinum poisoning that doctors failed to diagnose, has been awarded more than £200,000 in compensation. The man came to the UK in 2002 to help support his wife and daughter back in Poland. A year later, a...

A boy who was left disabled after he was deprived of oxygen at birth has been awarded damages of £8 million. Owen Wilson suffers from choreoathetoid cerebral palsy because he was deprived of oxygen for 17 minutes during his birth at the Wordsley...

Parents who were misinformed by doctors that their unborn child did not have a genetic disorder have been awarded £1.8 million in compensation. The couple already had two children when the wife became pregnant with her third child. During the early...

The parents of a child who died after their doctor failed to diagnose meningitis have been awarded a five-figure settlement. Liam Eaves was just nine months old when he fell ill in the summer of 2004. His skin was grey and he was shivering and coughing....

A mother has been awarded a multi-million pound settlement because her son was left severely disabled after he was starved of oxygen at birth.   Bailey Brown, 6, has cerebral palsy and epilepsy and has to use a wheelchair. Although he is able to feed...

A woman has secured a six-figure sum in compensation for injuries she suffered ten years ago when her appendix ruptured following a delayed diagnosis.   She was aged 13 at the time of her illness in 1998. After returning home from school,...

A boy born with brain damage from complications at birth has been awarded £2.7m in compensation.   The boy’s mother, Diane Doyle, visited hospital three days before giving birth to her son, Kieran. A midwife had detected that the baby had a...

Actress Leslie Ash has been awarded £5m in compensation after she contracted an infection while being treated in hospital. In 2004, the former star of the BBC TV show Men Behaving Badly suffered a cracked rib and a collapsed lung after an accident at...

A landmark judgment in the Court of Appeal has made a change to the way in which compensation awarded to those who require long-term care is calculated. Those who suffer catastrophic injuries through no fault of their own often require the services of...

A young girl who had to have both her legs amputated after a doctor gave advice over the telephone rather than making a house call is likely to receive over £1m in compensation. Lydia Cross, who was two years old at the time she was taken ill, began...

Two victims of medical mistakes have been awarded substantial compensation after developing cerebral palsy. In the first case, £8.3m was awarded to a 16-year-old girl for injuries she suffered as a result of incorrect treatment given to her mother...

A family has won a long-running legal battle for compensation after their son was left severely disabled after undergoing heart surgery. The boy, now 13, was admitted to the Bristol Royal Infirmary for an operation to correct a 'hole in the heart'...

A teenager who was severely disabled as a result of being deprived of oxygen at birth has secured £5.5 million in compensation. During his birth, Daniel Kay, now 16, became distressed and passed meconium – a baby's first stool – which he...

Two boys have each been awarded £2.75m in compensation for separate cases of irreversible brain damage. In the first case Gethin Davies, now 13, was admitted to hospital when he was just three weeks old. His mother was concerned because he had a high...

A man has won a six-figure sum in compensation for pain, suffering and loss of earnings after doctors failed to order a scan that would have diagnosed a perforated appendix. Philip Russell, 42, was admitted to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in...

 An 18-year-old woman has been awarded £2.85m in compensation for brain damage she suffered at birth. Jessica Smith was unable to take her first breath until five minutes after she was born at the Rosie Maternity Hospital in Cambridge. As a...

A woman from Peterborough, who was left severely injured after inadequate medical care following surgery, has been awarded £1.12m in damages at the High Court in London. Mrs Darshan Banwatt, 58, who was a factory worker, suffered bleeding after...

A young woman who received negligent care as a child, whilst undergoing treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital, has won a £500,000 lump sum and £23,000 a year for life in compensation for the brain damage she suffered as a result. ...

New research suggests that many women who give birth in hospital may be receiving poor care.   The research, funded by the Healthcare Commission and produced by the National Perinatal and Epidemiology Unit in Oxford, surveyed 5,000...

The family of a woman who died from septicaemia six days after she gave birth has been awarded £600,000 in compensation.   Jessica Palmer was admitted to hospital in June 2004 to give birth to her second child. She was discharged...

  A boy who developed cerebral palsy as a result of a ten-minute delay in birth has been granted the right to full compensation by the High Court. Experts testified that Jac Richards would not have suffered injury and would have led a...

When a patient suffers from post-operative problems, it is normal for any resultant legal claim to be made against the health service provider.   Recently, however, a case of this kind was (unusually) dealt with under consumer law.   It...

A couple whose son suffered brain damage in hospital 35 years ago have been awarded £3.9 million in compensation. Maria and Leo di Giorgi, of Luton, had been unaware that their son, Salvatore, had suffered brain damage until he had a brain scan, at age...

A woman has been awarded an undisclosed sum of more than £100,000 in compensation after botched plastic surgery left her close to death.   Denise Hendry, the wife of former Scotland football captain Colin Hendry, underwent liposuction in 2002....

A Worcestershire woman has won a six-figure sum in compensation after a mistake during routine surgery. Carole George, who went into hospital to have her gall bladder removed, was left in agony after the surgeon accidentally cut through the main bile duct....

A 68-year-old man, whose entire stomach was removed after he was misdiagnosed with cancer, has accepted a six-figure sum in compensation. The unnecessary operation has left John Ford, from Walsall, who is now 72, in constant discomfort and pain.   ...

The High Court has approved a £3.6 million award for a woman who was left brain damaged after surgery went tragically wrong. Elaine Silvester, 49, from Dudley in the West Midlands, had surgery to remove a benign brain tumour in March 1999 at the Queen...

A 78-year-old woman has received £30,000 in compensation for the loss of vision in her right eye after her GP failed to investigate her severe headaches properly. Mrs E had complained to her doctor of a pounding pain in her head. Unfortunately, whilst...

A widow has won an out of court settlement from a Manchester Hospital after doctors failed to diagnose promptly that her husband was suffering from a leaking aortic artery. Florence Farmer blamed the hospital for the failure and began a fight to obtain...

The family of a woman who died in childbirth five years ago has received a settlement of £300,000 after Swansea NHS Trust admitted that the care given to her was sub-standard. Diane Price, 24, was admitted to Singleton Hospital, Swansea after she had...

Provisional damages are sometimes paid in personal injury cases where the nature of the injury caused is such that it may get worse over time or where the injury may cause further related health problems in the future. Because of this uncertainty, the court...

After a seven-year legal battle, a mother whose daughter was born severely disabled as a result of a mistake by a hospital has received £5 million in compensation for the blunder. Zoe Blair, now 32, was starved of oxygen just before she was born at...

In order to recover damages from the NHS in a clinical negligence case, the patient has to establish that the NHS Trust, in its role as an employer which is vicariously liable for negligence on the part of its employees during the course of their duties, was...

A man in his late fifties, who wore an artificial leg as a result of injuries sustained in a motor cycle accident when he was 18, fell from a ladder which he was using when pruning a creeper growing on the side of his house. As a result of the fall, Mr...