Accident  and Emergency

This is often the first point of contact a patient will have with the NHS due to an illness or after an injury. The staff who practise in emergency medicine have skills in prevention, diagnosis and management.

Case reports

T -v- Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Trust

The Claimant was taken to the Accident & Emergency Department at Calderdale Royal Infirmary after being knocked down by a car
and was diagnosed as having an unstable short spiral fracture of the right femur.  Her leg was placed in a splint which had to be re-applied because it was the wrong size.  She was admitted to the children’s ward of the hospital. She remained in hospital but there was a failure to monitor the healing process of her leg in the splint, to the extent that poor union of the femur was achieved and her leg was bent when the bone was healed and had a boney protruberance. The bowing of the leg also entailed shortening of the femur and consequently the leg itself.

The case settled for £28,000.00 which included damages for care provided to the Claimant by her parents, the cost of some reconstructive surgery on her scarring and damages for her psychological distress, as well as for the leg injuries overall and for the otherwise would have been unnecessary.