Medical Negligence News

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

 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....

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...

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...

New research suggests that many women who give birth in hospital may be receiving poor care.  ...

The family of a woman who died from septicaemia six days after she gave birth has been awarded £600,000 in compensation.  ...

  A boy who developed cerebral palsy as a result of a ten-minute delay in birth has been granted the right to full...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

A mother of two who attempted suicide has been awarded £2.8m in damages after the ambulance called to take her to hospital took over twice as long to get to her as it should have done. Claire Burchell from Cleveleys, Blackpool, was...

A local council which had to bear the cost of accommodating a disabled woman was not able to recover its costs from the University College London NHS Trust, whose negligence had led to her disability. In 1998, Mrs J suffered a stroke...

A woman from Staffordshire who had an operation to remove a kidney afterwards discovered that the tumour she was diagnosed as having had, in fact, been a kidney stone. Carol Appleton was awarded £33,650 in damages after Mid Staffordshire General...

A Northamptonshire man was awarded damages of £1.32m by the High Court in Sheffield after health officials and a surgeon failed to admit that an operation had gone wrong. Peter Rogers went into a BUPA hospital in Leicester for an...

In 2004/05, the National Health Service (NHS) settled negligence claims worth £503m and in 2003/04 received over 6,000 new claims. The Department of Health has now published the NHS Redress Bill, which, it is hoped, will streamline...

Boots Opticians Ltd. has been fined at Chelmsford Crown Court after pleading guilty to charges of failing in its duty of care to a non-employee and of failing to report an incident which should have been reported under health and safety laws. ...

The court has approved a settlement of £40,000 for a woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease who had an accident whilst a patient in the care of Camden NHS Trust. The woman was admitted to hospital for observation. She was rather...

A 64 year old man who contracted a retro-virus as a result of a blood transfusion during surgery at the Nuffield Hospital in Birmingham in 1995 has been awarded £750,000 in compensation from the National Blood Transfusion Service. ...

A woman whose daughter died after being operated on in a Leeds hospital has failed in her claim for compensation for the psychiatric injuries she suffered as a result. Mrs Ward’s daughter was admitted to hospital for routine...

A diabetic man who suffered brain damage as a result of falling into a diabetic coma whilst in hospital has had damages of £420,000 approved. The retired man had entered hospital to have an operation, which was performed satisfactorily. ...

A woman who was left severely disabled after a rare complication of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment caused her to have a stroke has been awarded substantial damages in an out of court settlement. The woman had been receiving...

It can be acceptable to refuse to have medical treatment and not have it count as 'failing to mitigate loss', provided the decision is not demonstrated to be unreasonable. If a claimant refuses treatment it is up to the defendant to present sufficient...

Structured settlements look set to become increasingly common following a recent working party which recommended that they be more widely used and, in particular, that where cases involve children or patients, the court should not approve the settlement of a...

Back in August 2001 the Chief Medical Officer set out plans for the reform of medical negligence compensation, in a move to cap the spiralling cost of pursuing claims against the NHS. The following ideas were put forward for exploration:...

The Bristol Royal Infirmary scandal was so serious that there was a public enquiry and in 1998, heart surgeon James Wisheart was struck off the medical register after being found guilty of serious professional misconduct. Recently, another Wisheart victim...