want to sue aN NHS hospital for negligence

[alypaly]

can anyone advise me how to go about it.
i was in hospital 3 weeks ago and a nurse has administered an anti sickness injection in my buttock and hit my sciatic nerve. i have been in pain ever since and it is getting worse. she did not take enough care when assessing placement of the injetion. I really would like heads to roll as i didnt have any pain in my buttock prior to admission

[cuttleshocks]

sorry you are in pain alypaly...keeping my place as i am in a similar situation

[unfitmother]

You will not achieve your stated objectives by suing, you will by making a formal complaint.
You are extremely unlikely to be able to prove negligence

[NorthernLurker]

I don't understand how you think you can demonstrate this injection has injured you when you received 17 other injections in that area?

[unfitmother]

Suing them really will be a pain in the arse!

[Lougle]

"if i poisoned someone at work by giving the wrong tablets it wouldnt be classed as a mistake,it would be classed as negligent."

Only if you took negligent action in doing so. If you genuinely thought you had picked up tablet a, checked the prescription, and checked the drug, then something caused you to turn your head away and in doing so you picked up tablet b, it would be a mistake.

I am a nurse. I once did a 48 hour on-call, which was standard at the time. I was the last to do it, because the department had decided that due to increased workload, 48 hours was far too long for on-call. We were getting called in more than off.

I had been on duty on the Friday from 1pm-9pm. I was then on call from 9pm Friday to 9pm Sunday.

It was an unusually busy weekend for emergencies. We worked from Friday 9pm (when our shift officially finished) solidly through the night until Saturday 7am. By this point I had worked for 17 hours on the trot.

I got home from work at 7.30am and got into bed. At 9.45am I got a phonecall to say 'come in, we have emergencies'. I was the only one who had been on call the previous night, all the others were starting their on-call that morning (they had transferred over already to the new system, and we hadn't due to staffing issues).

By the time the third emergency case was out of theatre I was pooped. Seriously sleep deprived, and the list was still going.

A patient was prescribed Codeine Phosphate. Standard dose is 60mg IM. Everyone gets 60mg IM, they just do. Except this particular person. They were older and small-framed, so the anaesthetist had decided to prescribe 30mg initially and go from there.

The trouble is (and this is no defence, but merely an explanation), that when you are sleep deprived, your brain tells you what to read. It tells you what it is expecting to see. I 'saw' "Codeine Phosphate 60mg IM." I drew it up, didn't have a 2nd nurse to check with (luxury) and protocol says one nurse can give an IM.

As soon as I had depressed the plunger, I started my safety 'double check' that I always do before disposing of equipment. But in that split second, my brain came together, and I thought '30...30! I gave 60!!!'. You can't get it back out once it's in.

I went straight to the anaesthetist, told him what I had done, apologised and said 'you will need to fill in an adverse event form with me'. The very kind anaesthetist said 'no, thank you for reminding me that I needed to give a loading dose, anyway. 60mg will be fine.'

Now, obviously, I was extremely fortunate that the dose I gave was the 'standard' dose and a safe dose and the right drug in the right method. If I had given the wrong drug, an excessive dose or the wrong route of administration, I would have had to complete the adverse event report, and see it through.

However, regardless, what I did was a mistake and my employer would have taken responsibility because I was completing my duties. It was the system at fault, and the department knew that, so was changing it.

I still felt bad, and feel bad, but mistakes do happen. What I did as a result, though, was to phone the next on-call and say 'is there any way you can start early, I feel too tired to practice'. It was a warning that I heeded.

I'm not saying you aren't suffering. I'm not saying you don't need answers. I am saying that you don't need to sue, and that suing will not get you what you want. What you need is appropriate investigation and appropriate treatment, and an acknowlegement that this is not supposed to happen (but it does).

[cuttleshocks]

i have foot drop caused by a bad injection so thats why im interested

[wonka]

Just a quick question how do you know it was not a cummulitive effect from having so many injections in the same area?
I hope you get sorted and feel some sort of resolve whatever course of action you decide to take.

[Mayslane]

I stumbled across this website, whilst looking for sites re clinical negligence, etc. There seems to be quite a lot of controversy re the injection site and my guess is that some of the comments are by those that are in the 'know'? I don't know if this nurse is qualified or not, or whether she is a Health Care Assistant? As far as I can make out there seems to be little or no training for Health Care Assitants - they learn on the wards as they go along. What I can tell you is, quite categorically, that an injection is always given in the 'upper outer quadrant of the buttock' to avoid the sciatic nerve. That is FACT. I did my nurse training in the mid 70's ..... it's not something you ever forget. I really would urge you to take this complaint forward - the nurse does not know what she/he is doing! Good luck with whatever you decide to do and I hope the pain will soon lessen for you. Kind Regards. Mayslane.

[alypaly]

thankyou mayslane. it was a staff nurse that gave it to me. today has been a bad one...centre of my bum feels like a painful dental injection and is tremoring all the time as if the nerve is being interfered with. just waiting to hear from the hospital as i have been told they have to reply in writing in 25 days from complaint. I have been trying to do some jobs around the house today and it is interfering with everthing

[Lougle]

Mayslane Health Care Assistants aren't allowed to give injections

[alypaly]

it definitely wasnt a health care assistant, she was only allowed to take my venflon out under supervision.

[lal123]

I'd advise to wait til the outcome of the complaint, if you're not happy with the reponse take it to the Health Ombudsman - depending on their findings you might be in a better position to sue.

[Jaybird37]

You need to see a specialist solicitor. AvMA - Action against medical accidents - is a charity who will advise you and refer you to a local solicitor from their panel. They vet all their solicitors. Do not go to a PI solicitor - clinical negligence is a specialty on its own.

In the meantime, getting the pain sorted should be your first priority. Ask your GP for a referral to a pain clinic.

[lilbutproud]

I went into my a+e first time a week after an incident (as the pain was getting worse) a+e xrayed my wrist then told me everything was fine, 3 weeks later get called back in, turns out it was broken (and you could see very clearly on the xray), had a second xray to see how it was, hadnt healed fully so got put in a splint for 2 weeks fully and had to reduce use after, if it was still painful i had to go back in... it was still painful, got sent to book an mri, 3 days later i ended up back in a+e after a door slammed on my wrist (sounds silly but it wasnt on purpose) they then wernt sure whether id rebroken the wrist, or whether id broken my thumb... i now have a weak thumb from wearing a thumb splint for 2 weeks while waiting to find out if it was broken or not... turns out thumb wasnt broken but i had ligament damage as well (torn) and a twisted bone and crushed carpel tunnel, at my mri i had an arthragram, this is supposed to be a local anasthetic and a needle fed down the side of the bone to put dye in... it took 10 needles in the end as they kept hitting a nerve and they still couldnt get it in the right place even with a second doctor... i then had the mri and the damage was shown... i then had to wait till i was 18 for an operation, i had been wearing a splint for 5 months by the time i had my op... and had to wear for another month and a half, while staying at the hospital on my second morning being there they made a mix up with me and the patient in the bed next to me who had a dose of painkillers at 6 am, i woke up about 7:30 in pain and was refused painkillers as they wrote in my documents that id had them at 6 and the person in the bed next to me hadnt. spent minimum half an hour in pain waiting for them to work out what happened. over a year on i am still in quite a bit of pain dont know whether id be in a better position had they have found the problem straight away with definately the broken bit being so obvious... not sure what to do... need some advice? thanks

[Celibin]

I think you need to be much clearer in what you want out of this: getting the nurse reprimanded/retrained etc via Complaints or suiing for a loss?If you do the later the Trust will automatically investigate anyway .Medical evidence from another doctor or hospital backing you may help.We got this when a baby lost a kidney due to neglect at birth.Transferrd to another hospital who agreed with us first hospital negligent. The lawyer told us you must have a loss which the 2nd hospital discovered we had If you show you have lost carear and did so solely due to hospital neg i.e the original illness you had did not lead to this then you have a loss I think for med neg you have yo show some fuuny thing such as "no oher person would have done his had hey been a nurse in his procedure" so nurse did somehing oulandish. It really is difficult but wothwhile 30 min appointment with sols

[sneezecakesmum]

As a nurse I can say for sure if you were injected into your sciatic nerve (I don't doubt it from your description of the pain) the nurse in question was negligent. Cyclazine is given undiluted intramuscularly and only diluted intravenously.

My hospital decided that im injections into the buttock were too high risk so whenever possible the upper part of the thigh is used - more painful but safer. If the buttock is used it is only the upper outer quadrant used - I used to go for the love handles - v. safe!

In law a nurse is expected to give a high standard of care in keeping with her training. For negligence to be proved (a) the person is qualified to give the treatment (b) the treatment was given incorrectly and (c) harm has ensued.
Your case fits the negligence criteria without a doubt.

You need to contact a solicitor who deals with medical negligence on a no win no fee basis and he will get access to records, expert witnesses, medical records of your difficulties etc etc.

I entirely sympathise with Lougle as we have all made mistakes or had near misses, but have been lucky no harm has been done and most importantly learnt from those mistakes and become better nurses for it.

[Collaborate]

Lilbutproud: I suggest you repost in a new thread. Creates alot of confusion and irritation: eg I just read nearly 3 pages of post only to find you're post has nothing to do with any if the rest.

[tiggersreturn]

Interesting thread. I was re-reading Jed Mercurio's Bodies this weekend and sincerely hope that hospitals have moved on since the late 80s (culture of failing to report any mistakes, ostracising "whistleblowers", all reporting stopped on grounds of rank and seniority because consultants can never be wrong).

Just one misconception I'd like to correct.

"if i poisoned someone at work by giving the wrong tablets it wouldnt be classed as a mistake,it would be classed as negligent.Only if you took negligent action in doing so. "

Contrary to what Lougle said this would be negligence legally.

Anyone who has a duty of care (by being a nurse or doctor) and breaches it by doing some act which is not correct practice e.g. giving the wrong pill and this causes damage with no intervening act e.g. someone coming along and doing some other act which means you're not sure which act caused the damage - gives the patient a right to sue under the tort of negligence.

It is irrelevant that it was a mistake. Negligence actions usually arise from an individual's mistake or systemic malfunction.

Often negligence actions are a way of examining what went wrong. Was the person involved expected to work unreasonable hours and therefore more prone to mistakes? Did the system not have sufficient safeguards to ensure that right patient was matched with right medicine? Was the person doing the task not experienced enough and therefore not appropriate for the task? Were there not enough people around to assist leading to overburdening on one individual? Or was it just simple human error?

As you can see all these factors can contribute to make human error more likely. At the end of the day no one is perfect all the time but in a profession with a duty of care where the consequences of screwing up are high (include accountants, lawyers - particularly family ones, trustees, surveyors responsible for a building standing up on the basis of their calculations) a mistake which breaches your duty of care has correspondingly high consequences.

I don't know if suing is the best way to resolve this and there's a strong argument for allowing people to learn from their mistakes. However, sweeping these things under the carpet hardly resolves the issue at all.

[ScousyFogarty]

The NHS protect their own backs like ferrets on uppers. Cases can take years. But if you are determined take legal advice.

[madeit]

i am suing the NHS on a very serious matter. I have obtained the services of an excellent law firm. I am fairly uninterested in the financial side of things. I am interested in justice. If I had the choice of £1,000,000 and justice I would without question go for the later. I appreciate that I may not see justice through the courts. But psychologcially in my situation I need to address the issue. Further my aim is to have protocol changed so that no woman has to endure what I have been through. Another aspect of the process which is very, very hard is sitting in a meeting with the Trust and it's representatives and having absolutely no doubt that consultants etc look me in the eye and lie. I appreciate that all people;s circumstances and motives are different. Clearly for obvious reasons I am not able to go into specifics of my situation. Taking legal action has empowered me and I hope might in the long term bring changes.

[sneezecakesmum]

Sorry not to read all of the thread. But as a nurse it is negligent to hit the sciatic nerve. The training specifically teaches how to avoid this. In fact we were taught not to inject into the bum, even though it is less painful, but in the upper part of the thigh where the nerve doesn't run.

[MOSagain]

ummm, really old thread!

[Jessd123]

I have to disagree with those that say 'it is discusting to sue NHS'.... That is what I thought at first. But think of this do you think they care and properly deal with your complaints? When I was pregnant an I was having serious pain in my stomache I called nhs111 who advised me to call and ambulance and go to hospital and when I got there the nurse shouted at me saying 'why did you call an ambulance do you know we are wasting money for you to get and ambulance!' Meantime I was in serious pain and worried that something was wrong with my baby so sage had no right to put stress in my baby. Anyway I made a complaint to yh hospital and guess what?! Nothing happened to her all that they said was she apologised!? Really? For 1- bet she never meant it she only said it to her bosses and for 2- she didn't apologise to me the patient that she mis treated.
Anything could have been seriously wrong and instead of doin her job she decided to be judge! That experience scarred me and made me afraid to seek medical help because of the way she put that judgmental mistreating behaviour upon me....
Also I have another experience when I was in labour I called and called the hospital who refused to admit me in because my contractions were not regulating 3 mins apart and guess what they didn't believe I was in labour so my waters broke at home and I started pushing straight away I couldn't stop my baby's head was coming out in the car her head was stuck she could have been in stress or anything because they decide to think that everyone's contractions have to regulate. Luckily baby was ok.
Next thing the day my baby was born I fed her and she wa struggling to breath (t the time I didn't know but now I know she has a milk allergy) I was so scare I called the nurse and all she said was she is fine even though my baby was clearly struggling (thy should have properly done checks but they didn't) the next few weeks my baby came up in rashes she was screaming she was constantly being sick you name it I was really worried so I took her to a and e 3-4 time in three weeks begging for an allergy test because I myself researched even though breastfeeding my dairy intake can still pass through to her.) anyway they all refused to do an allergy test they gave her medicine for acid reflux and another medicine which made her 100% worse (I did not want to give it to her but was told I had o or social would get involved) anyway that made he worse her rash didn't go she was still constantly sick so I took her back and they told me nothing was wrong it was a virus and she was crying cease she wanted her nappy change and I did not know anything it is my first baby and they are qualified so they know more them me" I begged for an allergy test and they refused. Then for eight months I took my daughter back and forth to the go who still didn't do anything. They finally referred me to a allergen doctor 8month suffering later and I found out that they should have referred me to a dietician etc from the beginning! I also have low vit d (I knew there was something wrong with my bones) they refused to do anything for months and wen they did finally do the test it came back as I have really low vit d levels.... If they listened from the beginning none of this would have happened and my daughter has been through so much suffering because of this I actually thought for months it was all my fault and I could have done something to help her I blamed myself just like they blamed me (for being young and her being my first baby) I have cried day in day out because or ha to see my little innocent baby in pain day in day out? That is the worst thing another could have to see is their child suffer and them not be able to help her. So making a complaint will not do anything all it will do is sen you a letter but that won't stop them from mistreating someone else and putting more damage upon patients! Also we are the ones who pay for nhs via our taxes which some of us get taxed 42% for ex earn 1million you get taxed 400 thousand so they can afford t the question is do they want to? So next time you want to be to kind think again an think what could happen if they don't get sued? They will mistreat mor patients and they can damage people's health even further! I am suing them not for the money but because that is the only way they might learn their lesson am think twice next time they send patients away without properly caring for them....

[user1465228736]

hi go to solicitor no win no fee