20/02/12: the East Midlands Strategic Health Authority has apologised for a surgical error that left a patient with cerebral palsy and has been ordered to pay six-figure compensation.

Stacey Jayne Smith of Nottingham suffered life-changing brain damage and nearly died when her heart stopped beating during a gall bladder operation at the City Hospital in 1988. Ms. Smith was admitted to hospital with suspected gall stones. During the procedure, her bowel was punctured causing her to go into cardiac arrest.

After admitting liability to 70% of the injuries sustained by Ms. Smith, the EMSHA will be paying an undisclosed sum approved by Mr. Justice Tugendhat in the High Court.

This case was very late in going to court. The proceedings were begun in 2008 although the operation took place when the now 24 year old Ms. Smith was a baby.

The family’s solicitor commented that the Smith family had been caring for Stacey for a long time without realising they had a case. Mr. Bruce Williams commented that it was thanks to public funding that the Smith family were able to bring a case which, under the current cuts to the legal aid program, would not be possible.

Local press has reported that the police force have paid an approximate total of £1.3m in compensation and legal fees.
This includes £550K won by a civilian employee who slipped on some ice in the police car park, broke their elbow and developed chronic pain syndrome.

Local MP Oliver Heald said that he has the highest admiration for work of the police and if they are injured in the course of their duty, it is correct for them to be fully compensated.

The police have responsibility to compensate people whenever it is needed and to make sure that all the payments are comparable with those made by other forces.

A Hertfordshire Constabulary spokesperson commented that all accidents are used as learning opportunities in order to improve the forces H&S practices.

The nationwide amount of police pay outs has exceeded £12m.

16/02/12: A claim has been settled between a mother whose son passed away just hours after he was born and Scarborough hospital. Mrs Wallace claimed medical negligence led to the death of her baby son, who died in 2009 after hospital staff did not follow adequate procedures which could have helped the child to breathe.

It had been a difficult pregnancy for Mrs Wallace, who suffered from a low-lying placenta. Her son Harry was delivered eight weeks premature via emergency C-section at 10pm on the 10th September 2009. He weighed just 3 pounds 11 ounces, and was rushed straight away to the hospital’s Special Baby Care Unit.

Mrs Wallace has expressed her pain at not being able to hug him before he passed away, and missed the opportunity to watch him move. Neither of Harry’s parents were informed about the difficulties that Harry was experiencing, which has led them to feel they were not there when he needed them most.

Harry passed away at 6:42am the day after he was born.

Solicitors for Mrs Wallace filed a report claiming that a series of errors were made by the staff in charge of Harry’s care, which contributed to his breathing difficulties. The failures included not following respiratory support procedures or transferring him to a specialist unit in Leeds.

Other failures in the report include improper ventilation given to Harry to aid his breathing. It has also been revealed by Mrs Wallace that there were too few staff on duty, meaning that nobody could take her to see Harry before he died.

Chris Moore, one of Mrs Wallace’s solicitors, said that there was clear evidence that Harry was likely to have survived if he had been treated properly by hospital staff. He described the situation as “preventable” and that the communication failures between the parents and staff was unacceptable.

The Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust have expressed their regret at the tragedy, and confirmed that an agreement had been found.

Britons who are injured in car accidents or workplace incidents may soon be benefitting from quicker compensation.

The government has issued a statement to say that it will increase the claims limit from £10K to £25K which will lead to faster pay outs for up 55K people each year as it is anticipated that 97% of claims will be able to be settled via the fast track system.

A time limit introduced in 2010 has imposed a strict time limit for legal representatives and insurers to establish liability by standardising claim forms and setting legal costs.

Another scheme has been introduced which relates to public liability claims and workplace injuries.

The CEO of ABI insists that the government must press on with the long overdue and wide ranging reforms to civil litigation to ensure a cost efficient system for claiming compensation.

The reforms coincide with other measures designed to improve family law and legal aid processes.

A teacher has submitted a compensation claim against a go karting company after an accident in the pit lane.

The court papers state that Julie Markie, had been dealing with one of her students at the track edge when another go kart being driven by another of her pupils hit her.

Mrs Markie now has scarring to her foot and suffers from pains in her leg, ankle and foot which cause her to limp; she also sustained a traumatic stress disorder.

It is believed that since the accident Mrs Markie has a very long scar on her left foot, suffers from a pain syndrome that affects her left ankle, foot and right leg and means she walks with a limp and also developed post-traumatic stress disorder.

The karting firm now face a legal battle from the former design and craft teacher who is claiming for loss of earnings, asserting that the incident forced her to leave her career in teaching.

A delay in a mother’s birth has caused serious injury to her son. His mother is now seeking £5 million in compensation on his behalf.

In 2004, his mother had to undergo an emergency Caesarean procedure in order to give birth. However the incident at the Glasgow Queen Mother’s Hospital took a catastrophic turn as medical staff supposedly used the wrong anaesthetic, according to a report by the Scottish Sun.

When her son was delivered he was starved of oxygen and couldn’t breathe. This had led her son to be incapable of talking and has left him with sight impairment. The boy has also developed cerebral palsy.

His mother’s legal team have submitted legal papers to court which has argued that medical staffs were negligent and the boy could have been born 17 minutes before he was actually delivered. They also claim that medical staff did not attend to the situation with the urgency in which they should have.

His mother is currently claiming a £5 million payout in compensation to attend to her boy’s care needs. However the Health Board are denying all liability for the incident.

11/01/12: 25% of plastic surgeons needed to treat patients experiencing complications related to surgery which had been carried out overseas in the last year.

The BAPRAS has published research which shows that 23% of its members carried out NHS work as a result of complications caused by surgery which had been performed elsewhere.

BAPRAS is warning that in addition to the health risks facing patients who travel overseas, they are also burdening the NHS with the necessary after care resulting in resources being taken away from others’.

The report shows that UK plastic surgeons saw more than 208 patients across the UK for complications as a result of them undergoing cosmetic surgery abroad. The operations which saw the highest incidence of problems were breast enlargement, but also included, breast reduction, neck or face lift and abdominoplasty.

Approximately 75% of these patients had complications which required further treatment to be carried out, this included 26% which needed emergency surgery.

In the UK all privately funded cosmetic surgery follow up care is the responsibility of the surgeon who carried out the original procedure. However BAPRAS has highlighted that the NHS does not have a clear policy regarding elective revisions or complications which arise as a result of operations that are carried out overseas. This results in patients relying on the NHS to provide the necessary aftercare and resources being taken away from other patients.

BAPRAS have warned that any increase in cosmetic tourism, will result in a parallel increase in waiting times for other procedures in trauma, cancer other elective surgeries.

A BAPRAS’ spokesperson has said that many cosmetic operations include major surgery. Anybody who is considering having cosmetic surgery overseas must apprise themselves of all the potential complications which can occur subsequently and think about how they will deal with them.

Patients should not automatically assume that the NHS will resolve these problems and realise that they may have to pay privately for further surgery in the UK.

A further downside of having the surgery overseas is that patients will have an increased chance of developing pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis due to flying so soon after the operation.

10/01/12: A reported £650,000 has been awarded in compensation to teachers who have suffered work-related injuries in Scottish schools.

One teacher who received a six-figure settlement outside of court, and who did not want to be identified, claimed she had suffered a psychiatric injury related to stress. The teacher was reportedly awarded roughly £250,000. It was the largest payout ever seen, as a result of occupational stress, according to the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS); which is also the largest teaching union in Scotland.

This was just one of the claims stemming from injuries at work, but other such instances have included a teacher who was injured when a pupil swung the door in their face and one teacher who was physically assaulted while playing football.

Ronnie Smith, the EIS’ general secretary, claimed that this was a warning to employers about the dangers of occupational stress facing teachers. Mr. Smith went on to say that employers must take into account the mental wellbeing of their employees.

Mr. Smith said the highlighted case was an example of how serious these injuries could be and a message that a strong support system for staff had to be taken advantage of. His solution to the problem was for local councils, who are already facing cuts, to manage the workload in a more efficient manner.

The £650k paid out in the last year is a significant hike against the 2008 figure of $181k (the last time figures were available). The union reported that the 2011 total amount of compensation and the single claim of £250,000 were both the largest on record.

These claims have come when councils are been forced to make cuts to their education budgets which have placed many schools in a difficult position when trying to balance their own books.

The general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, Ann Ballinger, revealed that on average teachers were spending an extra ten hours a week developing material, marking work, and planning their lessons. According to the general secretary, some teachers were having trouble sleeping and having problems handling their own family life due to their constant need to work. Working during their holidays and during the weekend is common practise among teachers. Ann Ballinger also added that this dangerous combination of factors went a long way to causing serious mental damage which many never recover from.

Additional stress came last year when Scottish teaches took the decision to go on a national strike over pensions. This was the first national strike by teachers since 1986. The EIS has also claimed it will take further action if the recommendations in the controversial McCormac report are introduced without consulting the unions.

Anxiety has also stemmed from the new Curriculum for Excellence which was introduced in 2010. This new curriculum has only placed additional stress on to teachers, many opponents of the new system have claimed.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Government has said the Government expect local councils to help reduce stress and injury through their own local procedures. COSLA, which represents Scottish local councils, has commented that local authorities should deal with compensation claims.

In 2010 there were also recommendations that teachers should have reduced workloads in order to combat stress and mental health issues.

£32 billion each year in compensation, sick pay, and medical costs was what it cost the UK economy last year a study has shown.

09/01/12: Personal injury compensation of £37,000 has been awarded to a rider who broke her back when she was flung from her startled horse.

Ceri Tonkinson from Dinas Powys in South Wales was riding her horse, which was said to have only been recently ‘broken in’, when she was flung from her seat when it became startled by another horse which was ridden by Mr. Stephen Davis from the nearby Penarth’s Downside Riding School.

The South Wales Echo reported that Mr. Davies had been asked not to overtake her because the horse may become startled, but Mr. Davies ignored her, rode his horse too close and spooked Ms Tonkinson’s horse which resulted in the accident.

The fallen horse rider was formerly a regular competitor at a number of high level events in the UK, however she is now unable to ride for long periods of time due to her broken pelvis and back.

Cardiff County Court awarded Mrs. Tonkinson £37,000 after it was found that the Penarth Downside Riding School and Mr. Davies had acted negligently.

Mrs. Tonkinson, who launched the compensation claim, claimed that she had witnessed riders from that school riding dangerously on a number of occasions and she was not prepared to deal with it anymore.

05/01/12: A Basildon-based packaging company has been fined for an accident in which a glueing machine severed the tips of a worker’s fingers.

The incident occurred on the 22 March 2011 when cleaning paper was being utilised to dry parts of the glueing machine, but when the paper became trapped, line supervisor Lynda Jackson’s right hand was dragged into the machine. The tips of two fingers were cut off.

Ms. Jackson of Harold Hill in Essex suffered significant nerve damage, and was told the damage could be permanent. The line supervisor returned to work after a two month rest period.

CBT Packaging Ltd’s manufacturing location on Paycocke Road, Basildon, was then investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The investigation found that the company’s policy stated to avoid cleaning the machine while the rollers were in rotation, however the general practice of the workers was to ignore the policy.

The prosecution informed the Basildon Magistrates’ Court that the guard on the machine was not sufficient enough to stop workers from accessing the rollers. Furthermore, staff were not given enough training in cleaning the machine in a safe manner.

CBT Packaging Ltd of High Street, Edgware, Middlesex, admitted breaking Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974. The firm was hit with a £12,000 fine and costs of £4,971.45.

Julie Rayner, an inspector for the HSE, said that Lynda Jackson had been failed by the negligence of her own employer by not installing proper safety equipment and by not giving the correct amount of training in this procedure.