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MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE....... long, sorry!

49 replies

lissielou · 08/03/2007 16:11

most of yu know my story but if you dont here goes:

ds was born 22m ago, at 38w i measured 42w. he was back to back and engaged/disengaged 3times. im 5'1" and a size 8 with v tiny hips.i asked for a caesarian but was told that the hosp didnt do elective cs, didnt see my consultant once despite being in and out of hospital throughout my pg. i had 3 failed inductions, my waters broken and they were green! after 3 days of labour i had an crash cs. i then contracted GBS in my uterus, my placenta was in bits and noone checked it fr signs of infection.

since the cs i have been in agony. ive had headaches, and urine infections all the time. stomach aches, sickness and dizziness. all this resulted in severe PND. ive also had 3 confirmed mc and last month an ep. after the operation to remove the ep and tube it was necessary to open me up properly coz i was bleeding internally and had lost a lot of blood. for this they used my cs scar, and in cutting caught my bladder. the reason for this is it was put back too low down. my remaining tube is covered in adhesions along with my womb and ive been told that its unlikely that we will conceive again naturally.

do i have a case for medical negligence, how do i word the initial letter and how do i go about it?

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lissielou · 08/03/2007 16:13

ps ds was 9lb2 with a 38cm head. his head had a horrendous bruise across the back that we have on video

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ImaWurzel · 08/03/2007 16:13

Bumping this. Someone will know.

lulumama · 08/03/2007 16:15

go and see a specialist solicitor pronto....not a general one, but one who specialises in this area.....and the sooner the better...

and get copies of your notes asap, before you instigate any proceedings, in case they go missing from the hospital

ohsmellyjelly · 08/03/2007 16:15

Message withdrawn

Tigana · 08/03/2007 16:19

In terms of wording any letter...jsut say what you said above, but with capitals etc (!

Have you written to the hospital and complained?

Do you have a solicitor?

lissielou · 08/03/2007 16:20

ive already had a struggle getting a copy of the letter about the 2nd op, apparently its not procedure to issue them. the 1st letter came straight away tho. which is odd

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lulumama · 08/03/2007 16:20

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

lissielou · 08/03/2007 16:21

we have spoken to a solicitor and they think we've got an excellant case, its just a case of rolling the ball now

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Tigana · 08/03/2007 16:22

To get your notes write to the 'Data Protection Officer" at the NHS trust. Say you want to see your notes in relation to Obs and Gynae. You have every right to see them but there is a process to be gone through by the Trust first (nothing dodgy) and it may cost you to get copies (but only the administration costs of teh Trustra n dthere is an upper limit but i can't recall what that is.

Exmouth · 08/03/2007 16:22

How did you find the solicitor?

Tigana · 08/03/2007 16:23

Not procedure to issue letters to patients???....google on 'Copying Letters to PAtients' there is a whole NHS scheme to encourage/make this happen as routine! FFS!

Mumpbump · 08/03/2007 16:23

Lissielou - go and see a solicitor specialising in medical negligence. They should give you a free initial consultation and they are allowed to charge on a no win no fee basis. The downside is that they will take a percentage cut which might be higher than if they charged on an hourly basis, but you have got a pretty concrete claim so I would try to negotiate a reduced percentage.

If you want to send an initial letter yourself, you basically want to summarise the facts as you have here, tell them that you consider them to have been negligent in the performance of the procedures and that they are in breach of their duty of care towards you. I would then invite their proposals for the resolution of the matter. If you are going to ask for money initially, definitely involve a solicitor as they will be able to give you a good idea of how much compensation you might get. If you want to ask for an alternative, such as IVF, then you wouldn't necessarily need to involve a solicitor from the outset, I guess.

HTH.

lissielou · 08/03/2007 16:26

all of them ideally! i had an apology from the mw who delivered noah but i know now that my pnd is coz of the way they messed my body up during surgery! theyve robbed noah of a mum for 2y! and me of having another baby! i will settle for ivf funding tho!

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CarGirl · 08/03/2007 16:27

yes i think you will have grounds a specialist solicitor will be able to advise you.

Be aware though that any compensation comes out of hospital funds ie what would be spend on health care of other people. However I assume at the very least you need quite a bit of money just to try fertility treatment in addition to compensation for what you are physically suffering etc.

Ironically I am 5'1" have size 6 hips (I am a 0 in Gap!) measured 38cm at term plus 16 and gave birth to a 10lb6oz baby after being induced with no interventation so I guess they really don't automatically think you are too small to deliver naturally. However the medical attention you got is truly badly lacking and shouldn't have happened.

What an awful situation you have been thru very good look with compensation and having more children by whatever means neccessary.

Sorry a very rushed post hope it's not too insensitive

Tigana · 08/03/2007 16:29

The money often comes out of a 'pot' of contributions held by what ammounts to an insurance company for the NHS...

lissielou · 08/03/2007 17:29

.

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Tigana · 08/03/2007 17:43

OK...so...solictor can write on your behalf to the Trust concerned...may charge you for it though...or you can write to them yourself and just keep your solicitor 'in the loop'.

Write to the Chief Executive in the first instance - letter will get passed to litigation/claims/legal department anyway.

Suggest you simply lay out what has happened in the letter, just as in the OP, and end with paragraph about what you want - "In view of the above I ask for reassurance this won't happen to anyone else and wish to make a claim for compensation for the pain/stress/anxiety/inconvenience I suffered at the time, and the ongoing complications which are affecting my quality of life and mean I am unlikely to conceive again naturally (this is the biggy tbh..ongoing consequences...)

lissielou · 08/03/2007 18:12

just spoken to a solicitor who has said that ive got an excellant case, someone will call me back in the morning. he said that they may be able to retain me on a no win, no fee basis including all costs eg getting medical records. took this as a v good sign!

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Saggarmakersbottomknocker · 08/03/2007 18:18

Sorry that you went though all that lissie.

One tiny bit of advice - have a go at getting your records yourself first. Under Data Protection you are entitled to see them. If your solicitor writes for them the Trust will be on their guard and may find ways to delay them. It hadn't supposed to happen but it does.

Good luck.

lissielou · 08/03/2007 18:23

good idea, i saw my records during a "talk about" service that the hosp does and the mw kept skipping thru huge chunks, so there must be something in there! do i have to give a reason?

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CarGirl · 08/03/2007 20:05

At our local hospital they have a MW trained to go thru your notes with you - like a counselling type thing. I would simply ask to go thru your notes and have a copy of them. Say you are not clear on what happened and why and you want your head cleared before you have any more children? Or do they already know that is not a likely scenario?

Also be aware that a dr/consultant can right in your notes that it is not in a patients interests to see their medical notes and you will never be allowed to read them. This happened to my friend, her solicitor had them but was not allowed to let her see them!!!!!!

ohsmellyjelly · 08/03/2007 20:08

Message withdrawn

CarGirl · 08/03/2007 20:14

I had to pay for a photocopy of my labour/birth notes - £15 I think , but well worth it.

So my friend still doesn't know what is written about her - but at one time they said her chronic pain condition was all in her head (psycosymatic - or whatever) that has all been disproven - she had all the symptoms of her disorder but it took them over 10 years to diagnose it........

lissielou · 08/03/2007 20:32

its disgraceful!

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lissielou · 08/03/2007 20:58

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