£13,500 for anaesthetic error victim advised by another lawyer that her case might not be worth more than £1500
Miss E was scheduled to undergo a caesarean section. During labour an anaesthetic was administered via spinal epidural. Unbeknown at the time, the epidural was misplaced and the result of this was that the anaesthetic began to compromise her ability to move her muscles.
Although there were obvious signs that the epidural was misplaced, and at one point the hospital staff appear to have recognised this, they nevertheless proceeded to administer further anaesthesia through the same epidural with the result that she suffered what is known as a “high block” in which the effect of the anaesthesia travels up the body, in this case compromising her ability to breathe.
This resulted in a terrifying situation for her in which she could not breathe and as a result a general anaesthetic had to be administered.
Therefore, not only did she suffer the horrifying experience of not being able to breathe, she was also not conscious for the birth of her child which impacted her bonding with him. Following the incident she developed post-traumatic stress disorder and exacerbated depression combined with impaired bonding with her child.
Aston Knight Solicitors accepted the case and obtained specialist expert evidence from both a senior consultant anaesthetist and also a consultant psychiatrist. The Hospital Trust however denied liability and considered that they had not been clinically negligence in treating her. Their view was that it was safe to administer the further dose of anaesthesia.
As we could not reach agreement we issued court proceedings and ultimately a strong settlement of £13,500 was obtained, which Miss E was delighted to receive. The settlement was particularly pleasing given that another lawyer advised that her claim value could be below £1500.
James Winterbottom, the solicitor who dealt with the case, commented:
“This case highlights a number of concerns regarding the level of candour operated by some hospital trusts. Although an internal report was completed at the time, the report proved to be very misleading in that it did not feature the final dose of anaesthesia which did the real harm; instead, the report focused upon the earlier period which missed the real issue in the case. This is made more concerning by the fact that whomever completed that report would have been fully aware of what they were doing. Even after the incident a consultant met with Miss E and again provided what proved to be a somewhat misleading explanation which again distracted her from the actual error which the consultant would have been fully aware of. Unfortunately many clinical negligence cases feature issue such as this i.e. medical staff not being truthful with patients as to what has actually happened and sometimes only a clinical negligence case such as this will uncover the true facts.
It is also a further example of Aston Knight Solicitors achieving a result far better than achievable in the opinion of another lawyer.”
Please feel free to get in touch should you wish to discuss a matter with us. We offer a free, no-obligation and confidential initial consultation for all potential personal injury and clinical negligence matters and are happy to take on cases from other firms including failed/closed cases.
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