Medical negligence

[Ste1115]

Has anyone ever had a successful medical negligence claim? My paperwork is with the expert awaiting final reports before court im just wondering what the process is

The breaches you refer to are the bit they have already admitted to.

They are denying causation ie..that those breaches led to any damage/loss.

Therefore you do not have to prove they did certain things you have to prove that because they did those things the damage occurred. Their argument would usually be it would have happened anyway (despite what they did) or it hasn't happened. It seems to me from the brief details here (and if this is the opthamology case on another thread) that they admit what happened at the appointments but are saying what happened would have happened anyway so there is no financial compensation due.

They may decide to offer a settlement as a commercial decision in that taking it to trial may be more expensive than making an offer. Or they may decide that they are so certain of their case that they will go to trial.

The "16 breaches" you refer to are the part they agree have happened.

if the case is serious enough many NHS Trust will agree to settle out of court & they may may a lower offer to begin with than increase the offer -it actually save the trust not going through court & it will less stressful for you
we agreed out of court settlement our solicitor was brilliant & sympathetic
I think it took less than 2 years we had no apologies or acknowledgment

The circumstances were a" never again" situation & another hospital had to do further treatment & investigation to rectify the situation. I wouldn't wish this to happen to anybody else
I did go through the hospital complaint procedure initially but as pp said they lied & it was another trauma on top of what happened - I had support from a charity at the meeting - afterwards the support worker turned round to me & said "sue them".

You’re about to destroy someone, I hope it’s worth it

So far as I can see, making these people's lives a misery is the only recourse we really have. There really is very little accountability in the NHS who will bend over backwards to protect their staff where there's any hint of systemic failure. The PHSO is basically an enabler for this behaviour and is frankly just a wet fart. The GMC recently allowed a Nigerian doctor to continue to practice after he beat his son with a metal bar until he bled. The CQC talk a good talk but seem very choosy about the battles they fight.

If there was a genuine way to be heard and ensure that mistakes aren't repeated then victims of malpractice might be less militant. Since the NHS goes out of its way to bury its mistakes it shouldn't be a surprise that people don't give a shit about the wellbeing of the highly paid professionals who've damaged them.

@Zebraaa

Just out of curiosity, will you all be going with private medical care with your pay outs in the future?

No as my DH is now dead !

Nhs admitted errors and systems, which they now have changed so hopefully no one else has to go through what we have had to.

@ridingonaroomba

You’re about to destroy someone, I hope it’s worth it

If someone destroyed my child's life with their incompetency, hell yes - it would be worth it for them to be struck off.

Be warned that the NHS is a very insular organisation who will always protect their own unless cornered.

@squirrelloveranon
you have no idea of what you are talking about
often these things have emotional as well as physical damage & that can affect the individual & their family.
When you try to do a complaint you can lied to & you are given the impression that nothing will change - or at least we were. If this incident was caused by a failures in their system, records doing something incorrectly these need to change & they won't unless they are forced to. In can be an individual in authority or a senior practitioner or clinician. I have know of some fantastic people in the NHS but these odd one or two need to be challenged & unless they are mistakes will continue to be made & some may have worse outcomes

@ridingonaroomba
another one
Actually many continue to practise even after this process - you can only hope they take more care
& again if the individual cost someone's life, caused prolonged & unnecessary suffering & cost more NHS money to put the situation right than by god they deserve some come back or just deserts for the damage they have done
& by god I know what I am talking about!
The bastard who did what he did to my family member continued to practise - & make money privately for years after.

@ridingonaroomba

You’re about to destroy someone, I hope it’s worth it

If they've done nothing wrong then they've nothing to worry about.

I wish I'd done this when the hospital misdiagnosed and missed my ectopic pregnancy leading to emergency surgery and loss of my tube. I wish I had. They even admitted fault.

@ridingonaroomba stupid comment. In my case a sonographer told me my tubes were clear, I then had emergency surgery and lost a fallopian tube, all because she didn't look there. I'm meant to feel bad for her when she repeatedly denied I had an ectopic, lost me my tube, damaged my fertility and left me not wanting to be alive anymore.

@Someone1987 mn hugs
I am so sorry this happened to you
& to others who have suffered or whose family have & talked about it here & those who find it too painful to speak about it my sympathy

I'll give you an example of a case that no medical negligence solicitor would take on.
I was admitted to a hospital and prescribed antibiotics while in A&E. I was given the antibiotics in A&E and then transferred to a ward. 2 days later, I had not been given the antibiotics, the ward was so cold that I walked out.
24 hours later I was extremely unwell so got a taxi to another hospital at great expense to me (26 pounds). My temperature was 40.5 Celsius. I was shivering with the cold and they made me strip off to get temperature down.

I tried to pursue a medical negligence case against the first hospital but because I was 24 hours at home before I sought medical help at another hospital and because I had no long term damage, no injury lawyers would take the case at all. I would have had to prove that the negligence of the first hospital caused significant damage. I was issued an apology by the first hospital and an admission that they did not have the IV antiobitics on the ward.

@mumwon thank you for the kind words🌺

An admission that they had none of the medication on the ward?
The whole time, the nurse kept telling me that I wasn't prescribed any antibiotics when I knew that I had been prescribed two! She was an utter bitch but they more or less ignored the complaint.

I was 5 days in the second hospital. But had been put on a ward with nurses not administering prescribed medication and wondering why I was getting worse (doctors). BECAUSE THE NURSES WERE NOT GIVING ME THE PRESCRIBED MEDICATION!!!

I suffered a lot of pain for about 48 hours as a result of negligence. Having a temp of 104.5 and feeling like you're freezing to death is not good. All because the nurses in the first hospital would not simply admit that they did not have the medication prescribed on the ward. Utterly ridiculous.

I am in the middle of a medical negligence claim, and they have accepted 2 areas of negligence and denied a third. They have denied causality.

Medical negligence solicitors would NOT take the case as I had suffered no long term damage and there was no way to prove that the escalation of my condition was as a result of not being administered the antibiotics unless we engaged a medic.

A close friend was unsuccessful in their medical negligence suit. Ultimately the hospital was at fault (surgery that should never have gone ahead as unsuitable patient, subsequent hospital acquired mrsa from operating theatres involved in National scandal, not being told about mrsa infection or being treated, resultant in near death and subsequent hideous disfigurement from a series of follow up surgeries to remove necrotic tissue and an additional 3 months in hospital, 15 years later wounds still not completely healed and require daily dressing). But the focus includes things like loss and damages. Because this patient was already disabled and therefore not working, and because the wounds are generally not visible under clothes, there wasn’t a case to answer. So I would go with the approach of seeking probable damages such as loss of earnings etc.

Barrister is fairly confident i will win.

Interesting thread, thank you.

I am right at the start of this process. I was misdiagnosed, they delayed telling me, they did nothing to help me get off the drugs used to treat the misdiagnosis, despite my specific request, as a result of which I have had two emergency surgeries, a fracture, have lost my job because I couldn't return to work now, and consequently have lost earnings to the tune of about £30K. Currently living on ESA.

However, I have my notes and they are incomplete, with the crucial part missing. I'm not sure if that works for me, or against me.

@NaToth check your house insurance, ours covers medical negligence - they will only take you on if you have 51% chance of winning.

@NaToth

Interesting thread, thank you.

I am right at the start of this process. I was misdiagnosed, they delayed telling me, they did nothing to help me get off the drugs used to treat the misdiagnosis, despite my specific request, as a result of which I have had two emergency surgeries, a fracture, have lost my job because I couldn't return to work now, and consequently have lost earnings to the tune of about £30K. Currently living on ESA.

However, I have my notes and they are incomplete, with the crucial part missing. I'm not sure if that works for me, or against me.

They do that. Notes go missing. The ones that incriminate them. Don't think that nurses are angels. Or doctors even.