Case studies

Acting upon personal recommendation from a leading medical negligence barrister, our client instructed us to investigate a claim relating to the death of her husband after he suffered a head injury at home.

The claimant was a renal transplant patient requiring immunosuppression with drugs including tacrolimus. She brought a claim for alleged failings in her medical care.

The claimant was reviewed at her GP surgery after an episode of vaginal bleeding. It was noted that this was a ‘one off episode’. A cervical smear and a high vaginal swab were performed to exclude any abnormality.

Our client was diagnosed with a left frontal lobe low grade glioma. He was advised that this was benign and required only monitoring by way of regular MRI scans.

We settled a claim on behalf of a father and his two sons in relation to the death of his wife due to a failure to identify a sub arachnoid haemorrhage in time to prevent further fatal bleeding.

Our client had long-standing hip degeneration and eventually was told she needed a total hip replacement. She had the operation at St Richard’s Hospital in Worthing, East Sussex and initially seemed to be recovering well. However, after her discharge from hospital, she found her pain was increasing and her mobility getting worse. The wound was infected and investigations revealed she had acquired an MRSA infection whilst in hospital at the site of the surgery in her hip.

In this case, we successfully pursued a claim for the widower of a lady whose GP failed to recognise the signs and symptoms that should have led him to diagnose unstable angina or acute myocardial infarction (MI).

Our client underwent heart surgery after which he was found to be suffering inadequate blood circulation. The hospital failed initially to consider that this might be caused by internal bleeding and it was several hours before this was identified.

Not all claims relating to infections concern diseases contracted in hospital. In this case, we acted for a client with a known hole in his heart that did not need treatment, but for which he attended regular check-ups because of his increased susceptibility to cardiac infections.

We were approached by the family of Mr Thomas who died aged 81 in July 2009. He was attended at home in Esher, Surrey, by an ambulance crew to take him to hospital. Whilst being transferred to the ambulance, Mr Thomas was physically dropped and struck his head on a step.

Our client had a family history and a number of risk factors for heart attack, including his own weight and high cholesterol level. He attended his GP complaining of chest pains, which the GP treated as reflux oesophagitis, but very shortly after leaving the surgery, our client collapsed in the street suffering a heart attack.

We recently settled a substantial claim for damages for a client who suffered a delay in diagnosis of her breast cancer due to negligent errors in the interpretation of biopsies performed on a breast lump.