Medical negligence/responsibility?

[BlinkAndMiss]

In 2010 my DH was admitted to hospital after complications with an existing medical condition. He was admitted through A&E who were aware of his condition, he sat in the waiting room with everyone else and was taken to a bay with everyone else.

He was tested 2 days later and was found to have C-difficile, this damaged his bowel behind repair and he had a full colonectomy 4 days later. The hospital told us that he didn't pick up the infection on hospital and that he came in with the infection. I questioned how they knew this and they said that there were no recorded cases at the hospital so it wasn't possible. I have never believed this.

DH is now living with a life limiting condition which is impacting on every aspect of his life. His original illness was linked to his bowel which gave similar symptoms to C-Diff. At the time he went to A&E he had been taking steroids which were prescribed by the GP when he went the week before which symptoms of his condition, so the hospital were aware that he was being treated for this condition.

My issues are these:
DH was never prescribed long term medication for this condition
GP prescribed steroids which did nothing, he went back to the GP and was simply given more
DH was left to use the toilet in A&E and also on the ward when it is a known fact the patients with this bowel condition are susceptible to catching C-Diff

Does DH have a case? This all happened in 2010 but he has been under the care of a fantastic consultant and we haven't wanted to rock the boat, we are grateful for the care he has received since that all happened, they've been great at managing the consequences of it all.

I've never claimed for anything, neither has DH. The problem is that DH is struggling to work full time, I already work full time and we are very careful with money. We have a child but we would love more - we can't, we can't afford it and we can't manage DH's condition and more children. It just seems so unfair on DH that this is not his fault.

Is this a case of dealing with the hand we've been dealt or is there some responsibility on the part of the hospital? Where do I start with seeking legal advice?

Thanks if you read to the end!

The first hurdle you have to overcome is that the limitation period in law is 3 years to bring a claim unless there you can argue an exception to this . In med neg cases this could be the date of knowledge if you find out a mistake was made after this period has lapsed but it sounds like you knew in 2010 of the possible negligence and the consequences.

Thank you for your response Morgan. Yes I thought that might be an issue, the thing is I did think that it was difficult for them to ascertain that the infection definitely wasn't picked up in the hospital but I had no proof. There were posters up in the hospital declaring that there had been no cases of C-Diff originating in the hospital so they were declaring that all cases found there were brought in from other places.

It has recently come to light in the press that this hospital has had failings in it's effectiveness to control the infection C-Diff, it has been something they have been working on since 2012 and although they have improved in some areas, this is not one of them. Do you think that would be enough evidence as to why we now believe that we were lied to? They tried to make us believe that it was not their responsibility and therefore we didn't feel able to question it at the time. Now that this has been released it seems that our fears were actually correct.

I hate even thinking of doing this, but with the demands on our family because of this situation I can't afford not to. Now that DH's condition has reached an even keel (we know what to expect, we know what care he needs and this is unlikely to change drastically) we see it as an 'end' of the care from the hospital - do you think that's likely to be taken in consideration when looking at the length of time?

Sorry for the questions, thank you for the information.

Blinkandmiss - baby barrister is right you need an expert solicitor . Med neg cases are v tricky . You must be able to argue your date of knowledge of negligence was 2012 and therefore bit out of time so indeed would agree you need to act quickly .

Even if you can prove negligence you still have to prove that it was the negligence that led to the operation and where your DH is now medically and that that may not have occurred in any event . You have to get expert opinions on review of the notes and see what they say.

Thank you so much for the responses, I'm trying to look for a solicitor with a reputable background in this sort of thing. I think I'll pursue it as far as possible but thinking about what you've all said I do think that the time issue may be a factor. Fingers crossed! I just want my DH to not have to struggle so badly to work, our financial situation is ok but if we could ease it a little then he wouldn't spend every minute at home with us in bed trying to recover from working a few hours.

We were so trusting, when I think about it I know that he caught that infection from the A&E toilet. We were there ages waiting and he spent the whole time in the toilet.

Perhaps I'm bitter about what has happened, I know there can be a sort of grieving process after a trauma and I think the steps I've been through so far match this. If we could just have it so another person in our position was taken to a private room and given a kermode or something, then it might minimise their chances of having this happen to them.

The care since then has been great, his surgeons are miracle workers, it's just a shame we ever had to see them.

Thanks again for the advice, such kind people on here :).