Boyes Turner’s brain injury specialists secured a 65% liability judgment and £500,000 interim payment for a young man with neurological disability caused by a hospital paediatric unit’s failure to treat his evolving sepsis and meningitis when he was an 8-month-old baby. Paediatric unit failure to act on GP’s urgent referral of baby with serious infection Our client and his mother were advised to attend the paediatric unit of the defendant hospital after being seen by a GP at an urgent appointment at the worried mother’s request. After examining the unwell baby, the GP told the baby’s mother to take him to hospital’s paediatric assessment unit. The GP gave her a referral letter to give to the hospital doctors, asking them to review the ‘lifeless+’ baby. The referral letter was marked urgent and alerted the hospital staff to the baby’s signs of serious infection, including that he had been unwell for two days, but within the last 24 hours had vomited, was difficult to wake and was stiff, irritable and quiet at times, and that when seen by the GP he had a high temperature with abdominal breathing and rapid tachypnoea (fast respirations). Our client’s mother arrived at the hospital’s paediatric assessment unit with the baby at around 7pm the same day. She handed over the GP’s referral letter and was asked to wait to be seen, even though the information in the letter and the baby’s serious condition mandated urgent assessment and a septic screen. Over the next few hours, the nurses and doctors repeatedly failed to acknowledge or act on the contents of the GP’s letter, the mother’s concerns or the baby’s deteriorating condition. Instead, they waited for more than an hour before the baby was given paracetamol but no antibiotics. No urgent medical review took place but at 11pm the baby was seen by an SHO (junior doctor) who failed to recognise that he was seriously ill. The doctor planned a chest x-ray, which if normal would then allow the baby to go home. When no radiographer was available to perform the x-ray, the registrar relied instead on a chest x-ray from two weeks earlier and discharged the baby at around 1am. No septic screen was carried out to rule out sepsis and no antibiotics were given. Delayed antibiotic treatment results in septic shock, meningitis and neurological disability At around 7am the same morning the baby’s parents heard him choking and found him unresponsive with stiff limbs, staring eyes and froth on his face. He appeared to be having a seizure (fit). They took him to A&E immediately, where he was noted to be cyanosed, peripherally shut down and suffering from septic shock. He was intubated and ventilated and finally given antibiotics for infection and acyclovir for encephalitis (brain inflammation). He was transferred to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at another hospital where, after further investigations and CT brain scans, he was found to have suffered a brain injury from pneumococcal septicaemia and meningitis. He was left with neurological disability including mild cerebral palsy, significant learning and behavioural disability and mental incapacity, as well as profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, ASD and severe ADHD. NHS Resolution denies that hospital’s negligence caused baby’s brain injury We helped our client’s family pursue a medical negligence claim against the NHS trust that was responsible for his hospital care. The claim was based on our experts’ opinion that the hospital staff negligently failed to act on the clear indications in the GP’s referral letter and from the baby’s condition that he had symptoms and signs of a serious infection, which mandated urgent assessment and investigation, including a septic screen, and treatment with intravenous (IV) antibiotics and fluids by 9pm at the latest. Correct and timely antibiotic treatment would have avoided our client’s injury and disability. NHS Resolution admitted that the baby had been negligently discharged but disputed that antibiotic treatment was mandated before 1am, by which time they argued it would have been too late to avoid our client’s injury. On that basis they denied that the defendant hospital’s negligence had caused our client’s neurological injury. Liability settlement guarantees brain-injured young man’s future care NHS Resolution made no liability offers and did not respond to an offer that we put forward on behalf of our client. They cancelled an agreed round table meeting (RTM) at short notice, then made an ‘ambush’ financial offer of £1.5million at the rescheduled (liability-only) RTM in the weeks leading up to the liability trial. The financial offer represented less than 10% of the total potential value of our client’s claim and was not accepted. During the subsequent negotiations NHS Resolution conceded 65% liability, resulting in a 65% liability judgment for our client. Our client has neurological injury, hearing loss, behavioural problems and mental incapacity but is independently mobile, with consequent risk to his safety. The liability settlement guarantees that he will have financial provision for his lifelong care. In the meantime, his immediate needs will be met by an interim payment, whilst we work with our client’s family and our experts to value the claim in preparation for final settlement negotiations or trial. If your child has cerebral palsy or neurological disability as a result of medical negligence, or you have been contacted by HSSIB/MNSI or NHS Resolution, you can talk to a solicitor, free and confidentially, for advice about how to respond or make a claim by contacting us.
