£67,000 Settlement
Pryers acted on behalf of the estate of Mr H, an elderly gentleman who sustained injuries after he was wrongly discharged from Hospital despite being very fragile and unwell.
Mr H presented to the Accident and Emergency department of the Defendant Hospital Trust with pain and swelling in his hand.
It was wrongly assumed that he had a simple wrist injury and there was a delay in performing blood tests, as well as a failure to admit Mr H to the Hospital for further investigations and observations.
Instead he was allowed to go home but was advised that ambulance patient transport was unavailable.
On making his own way home Mr H fell and sustained a fracture to his femur with head injuries.
He was taken back to the Hospital where it was confirmed that he was suffering from a kidney infection and gout, explaining his earlier symptoms.
Pryers investigations revealed that Mr H was too ill to have been discharged in the first instance. He should have had blood tests on arrival and then been admitted Hospital. The Hospital were negligent in failing to do so and also in failing to recognise that he had no safe means of getting home.
The Hospital’s negligence caused Mr H to suffer serious injuries from which he never recovered. At a late stage in his life, the femur fracture was difficult to overcome and sadly Mr H never regained mobility. He moved to a nursing home and passed away shortly afterwards.
A claim for medical negligence was brought by Mr H’s family, who received £67,000 to reflect the pain and suffering he was put to in the final year of his life and the financial losses suffered as a result.
Whilst no amount of money could properly compensate for the loss of their family member, it was important to all involved that those responsible were held to account and lessons were learned to avoid the same mistakes being made in the future.
