£1,815,000 in damages for young man who suffered a stroke as a result of negligence

Our specialist stroke team achieved a significant settlement for a client who suffered life-altering injuries due to negligence, which caused him to suffer a stroke.

In 2019, our client (who was in his early 20s) attended Northampton Hospital following cardiovascular abnormalities. He was diagnosed with tachycardia (a heart rhythm disorder), and he needed to be transferred to a specialist cardiology unit at a different hospital. As an interim measure, he was prescribed amiodarone (to treat his irregular heart rhythm), which was administered via a central venous catheter. Six hours later, it was noted that our client was becoming slurred with left sided weakness and facial droop. CT head imaging performed the following day confirmed the presence of a right middle cerebral artery infarct, and it was concluded that he had suffered a stroke because of ischaemia, secondary to an occlusive thrombus around the misplaced venous catheter which had been inserted into his carotid artery.

As a consequence of the stroke, our client suffered permanent left-sided physical weakness in his left arm, wrist and hand, and weakness in his left leg. At the time that the negligence occurred, our client was training to qualify as an electrician. He had ambitions of completing his qualification and building his reputation, before starting his own company offering electrical services. His ambitions were thwarted because of the physical injuries he sustained following his stroke, which left him with insufficient strength, dexterity, and endurance to be able to perform electrical work. He also suffered a neurocognitive injury following his stroke, affecting his ability to assimilate and process information, which impacted him in work, but also in social situations, and caused him to reduce the amount he socialised and the number of friends he socialised with. A side effect of his physical and neurocognitive injury was to suffer significant, chronic, fatigue, leaving him with little energy at the end of the day to do much more than cook dinner and go to bed, causing an additional constraint on his activities outside of work.

Our client has not let his substantial injuries define him. He worked incredibly hard to rehabilitate following his stroke and recovered some of the function that he had lost. He went back to college and re-trained in construction, and has now found new employment as a construction project manager. This has given him back some job satisfaction and a meaningful career path to work towards.

However, despite his best efforts, the consequence of our client’s injuries mean that he will require significant levels of commercial support with daily living activities in the future. His chronic fatigue is likely to be long lasting and is not expected to materially improve. He is unlikely to be able to work full-time for the rest of his career and will need to consider part-time work at some point, particularly when he wants to start a family. His fatigue and physical injuries also mean that he will probably need to retire early.

Outside of work, our client will not be able to live a normal life as he had expected. His physical and neurocognitive injuries will endure and will affect many aspects of his life. For example, his neurocognitive injury will mean that he finds it more difficult to plan logistics for weekend social activities and holidays. His physical injuries mean that he cannot simply and easily prepare and cook a meal if it involves opening tins and jars, or using heavy pots and pans. His fatigue means that he will be less able to perform simple domestic activities, such as cleaning and tidying his own home. The negligence caused our client to suffer immediate losses, but will also cause him to have significant needs throughout the remainder of his life.

We were instructed to consider a potential claim on our client’s behalf. After supportive evidence was obtained from experts in emergency medicine and vascular medicine, it was alleged to the defendant trust that its clinicians were negligent in failing to recognise and correct the misplaced venous catheter which caused our client’s stroke. The defendant trust investigated the allegations and admitted negligence.

After we secured admissions from the defendant, we obtained evidence from experts in care and occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and neuro-psychology so that we were better able to understand our client’s injuries and his needs. The evidence indicated that our client had various needs because of the physical and neurocognitive nature of his injuries and we were able to use this to secure an interim damages payment for him. This is a payment made by a negligent party in advance of settlement, to be used by the claimant to put in place the therapy, equipment, and support needs that they have because of negligent care.

With an interim payment from the defendant, we were able to work with our client to appoint a case manager who he felt comfortable with. She was then able to put in place physiotherapy, psychological therapy, and an occupational therapist to help support our client with his studies and his return back to work. The interim funds were also used for other therapies and equipment items that our client needed because of his injuries caused by the negligence.

It was necessary to wait to see how our client responded to treatment before we were able to obtain final evidence from the various experts in relation to his final condition and future prognosis. After that, we were able to quantify the claim for the losses that our client had suffered, but also the input/support and therapy that he would need in the future. This included a sizeable claim for commercial support, case management, therapy, equipment, and earnings and pension losses.

After quantifying the claim, we attended a settlement meeting with the defendant at which we secured the sum of £1,815,000 on our client’s behalf, reflecting the impact on his career, and the fact that he would not be able to work full-time to a normal retirement, as well as the commercial care and support he would need for the rest of his life.

Arran Macleod, senior associate in the medical negligence team at Penningtons Manches Cooper, said: “I was pleased to secure this settlement for our client who has been injured by the defendant in a devastating way. It is commendable that, as a young man in a bleak situation, he didn’t give up and showed great resilience to re-train, go back to work and try to do normal things as anyone in their mid-20s would. The settlement funds will enable him to modify his work to account for his fatigue, as well as put in place the support and equipment items that he will need in the future so that he can improve the quality of life that he has and live a near normal life in the future.”