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.
Cancer missed in 14 women at East Lancs Hospitals Trust
Friday, 18 September 2009 00:00 | 
| 
| 
Fourteen women have been told they have breast cancer after a consultant failed to spot their illnesses.
A radiologist is being investigated after 355 mammograms had to be re-checked when colleagues raised concerns at the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.
Eighty five women had to undergo a second breast examination, and 14 were told they had invasive breast cancer.
A representative of the Trust said it was not known whether the delay would harm their chances of recovery.
Rachel Donovan, Associate solicitor in the medical negligence department at John Pickering and Partners knows only too well the effect a mistake like this can have on peoples’ lives.
Rachel’s aunt lost her fight to breast cancer on the 11th May 2006 but before she died she instructed Rachel to pursue a claim against Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Rachel said:
“After obtaining my aunt’s medical records and an independent medical report from a Professor of pathology, I knew she had a case in relation to how her breast biopsy had been interpreted. My aunt had been given the all clear only to discover, after an 18 month delay, that she did in fact have breast cancer, which then spread to her bones and then her brain. My aunt lost her battle against the cancer on the 11th May 2006.
My aunt’s case was put to the defendant trust and they admitted both liability and causation and the case settled by way of an out of court settlement.
It was terrible for my uncle and cousins to lose my aunty from breast cancer but they also had to struggle to deal with the anger they felt, knowing her death was preventable.”
Rachel had a little girl the day before her aunty died and she was named after her aunt.
Rachel Donovan has worked on a number of cases involving failures to diagnose cancer and she would be pleased to help any women or their families who have also been effected by these issues.
Further information:
Rachel Donovan, Solicitor
John Pickering and Partners LLP
19 Castle Street
Liverpool
L2 4SX
Freephone: 0808 144 0958
Fax: 0151 258 1262
Notes
John Pickering and Partners LLP
About Us
Our clients are people who have suffered injury as a result of a medical accident in the UK. We are clinical and medical negligence solicitors. We handle negligence claims against hospitals, GP’s and other medical practitioners for clients across the UK.
We try to obtain maximum amounts of compensation.
We are committed to providing public funding (previously known as Legal Aid) and have a franchise from the Community Legal Services Commission. This means that they have looked at the firm carefully and approved of the way we work. They consider that we are medical negligence claims specialists. They trust us to handle medical accident claims properly.
If you are not eligible for public funding, we can offer a Conditional Fee Agreement, also known as a ‘no win, no fee’ agreement with insurance. We shall check the best method of funding your claim.
All 3 of our offices (Liverpool, Manchester and Halifax) are accredited by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers.
Claire Horton is an experienced clinical negligence solicitor who is based in our Manchester office. She continues to practice as an independent funding ajudicator for the Legal Services Commission and acts on a pro-bono basis for the AvMA helpline.
For further advice on medical negligence in Liverpool please also contact Rachel Donovan and for Halifax contact Ruth Davies, who are both experienced in the field of clinical negligence.
We provide free initial advice to people seeking information about a potential clinical negligence claim.
If you need advice about a clinical negligence claim, contact us now for information about making a claim for compensation.