We all know how busy accident and emergency departments can get. Couple this with the absence of senior doctors and radiographers to deal with the wide range of acute problems, and unfortunately the chance of mistakes being made increases. Negligence types include: missed or late diagnosis, failure to refer, inadequate treatment, missed fractures, missed foreign bodies in wounds or inadequate cleaning and inappropriate discharge.
Complaints in A&E medicine are unfortunately commonplace.
An A&E medical negligence cases success story
Mrs J cut her finger on broken glass whilst washing up. She went to Accident and Emergency and her wound was stitched. There was no search for damage to underlying tendons.
She was then unable to move the end joint of the affected little finger. She returned to hospital and finally a severed tendon was diagnosed. An operation was performed to repair this but the end joint of her little finger remained stiff and bent.
Her case was funded by her household contents insurer because the policy included cover for the cost of a lawyer in a medical negligence case.
Although the claim was denied we obtained supportive expert opinion both from an orthopaedic surgeon. After commencement of the proceedings a settlement was made to cover avoidable pain and suffering and lost earnings.