Help with negligence case if possible please?

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

Posting for a friend....her DH was very ill recently...he had been off colour for a few days but seemed "ok" then one evening she came home from owrk to find him talking nonsense and seemingly incontinent...she called an ambulance.

Ambulance came at 10.00pm with two ambulance men...one assessed her DH who by now had freezing cold hands and feet which were very very sore to touch but he was still talking nonsense...obviously confused and kept repeating "yes, yes, no, no" to all questions....he was as I said still incontinent.

Ambulance man asked him to stand up....despite having touched the DHs feet causing him to scream in pain...the DH obviously could not as he was it later transpired in the mid stages of septacemia.

The ambulance left without the DH...my friend was begging them to take him to hospital but they said there was no need as he would not cooperate.....he COULD NOT cooperate as he was already begining to shut down.

He spent the night at home getting worse and my friend sat beside him trying to get him to drink water...thinking that the ambulance men must be right and he'd get better soon....the next morn he wasn't responding and she called the GP who sent an ambulance at about 9.00am

He then spent 3 weeks in a coma. He has lost his feet, his kidneys are faling and though he is now home, he has lost his hearing mostly and is extremely ill....he will never bee the same.

My friend complained to the ambulance trust (or whatever they are called) who said they are reviwing their ambulance man's performance and the DH may be entitled to some compensation.

They have been telling her this for 4 weeks now and have just written to her to say they need to have another review and ask "more questions" of their ambulanceman.

In the meantime she cannot work and he can't obviously....they have hardly anything to live on and two children under 4.

Is there any advice regarding getting them to speed up the process or should she get proffesional legal advice? She's desperate and can't pay the rent as the housing benefit office have messed up and she has to reapply. Sorry it's so long.

If her husband were to succeed in a claim for negligence then first he would have to establish negligence on the part of the paramedics in acting as they did. That would involve an expert's report considering the policies and procedures in place, whether they acted in line with them and whether their actions were reasonable in the circumstances. It is possible that there was no negligence.

Even if negligence was established to succeed in a claim for compensation he would also have to establish (again through expert evidence) that the apparent delay in treatment actually made a difference to his condition. It might not have done.

A formal med neg claim is not quick - you're probably talking on average two years to settle if it succeeds.

no expert knowledge of negligence claims except to say that as a nurse he was obviously septic from your initial description of his symptoms. I would expect those to be recognised by another hcp. However if they are stating he refused consent to transfer to hospital then they would have to respect that.
But, IMHO it would be negligent to not get a gp out to review him given his symptoms and the potential lack of capacity to give informed consent due to him being acutely unwell.

Do you mean inchoherent ( ie not making sense when he was speaking) or inc ( no control of his wee or poo>ontinent

Red I mean incontinent. No bowel control...also incoherent though as it happens. He wasn't refusing consent...he was talking nonsense...he didn't know he was being asked anything.

How could he be seen as refusing treatment when he was seriously ill and half unconscious? Should my friend carry on as she is....or seek legal advice?

Definitely she should seek legal advice. I would suggest she looks on the APIL website for a local accredited firm

Thank you Chub but would she get legal aid?

Sorry, I was just checking because of what someone else had written. I suppose it depends like others have said on what the procedures are in this type of situation if they couldn't talk him into going in the ambulance. I don't think anything will speed the process up tbh so maybe wait & see what the trust report back to her & then see a specialist lawyer armed with this information.

Household insurance sometimes includes legal cover that may include medical negligence claims. But it will not be quick as others have said.

In short term could CAB help her sort out benefit claim for all they are both (friend and DH) entitled to?

Legal aid has been effectively abolished for civil cases so no.

If she has household insurance she should check for legal expenses insurance as pp states.

It really is a two stage test - it's not enough to establish negligence. There has to be damage and loss caused by the negligence. Sounds like he had been quite ill for some weeks.

She has no insurance I think...but will check...he's been ill for months Chub but how do people pay for lawyers in cases like hers when they don't have insurance?

The lawyer acts on a no win no fee. The bugger is paying for the expert evidence as that has to be paid for win or lose. Some firms have funding arrangements. APIL should be her first port of call to get a reputable firm rather than some off the telly/Internet cowboy.

Oh I see! Thanks so much Chub At least she could find a good lawyer there. She's upside down and her life is shot to pieces. I think she has a case because her DH was obviously septic...a student would have known that by looking at him. He lost hours where he could have been recieving help....I know he would have still had effects but somethine would have been better if he'd got treatment that night.

Being a cautious lawyerly type I never say any claim is certain to succeed. But it certainly sounds like it merits further investigation. Horrible situation for them both.