YOUNG MAN DIES IN HOSPITAL
We acted for a Mr Anthony McGinn who received a telephone call from the Police in the early hours of the 8 May 2004. He was informed that his son, Graeme, had been involved in a RTA and had been taken to Great Western Hospital in Swindon. He was told that Graeme was fine but that he had hurt his arm.
Mr McGinn arrived at the hospital at approximately 1.20am, He found Graeme to be “loud, cocky and aggressive” which he felt was due to him having a drink earlier. However, he has since learnt that these were probably the first signs that he had in fact sustained internal injuries following his accident. At this point, Graeme had only been treated by the hospital for his arm injury. He was told that he had chipped a bone in his elbow but would not require any surgery.
Graeme continued to complain of pain in his chest and abdomen. He did not receive any treatment for this discomfort. As his blood pressure was dropping he was taken to the resuscitation room. Graeme became increasingly aggressive, confused and violent. He did not receive any attention other than blood pressure monitoring and fluid provision via a drip.
His condition continued to deteriorate. Furthermore, no action was undertaken by the hospital to establish if he had sustained internal injuries. Mr McGinn was later informed that a Surgeon was being called to perform an operation to establish if Graeme had internal injuries. After the Surgeon arrived, it was decided that the surgery would take place in the resuscitation room as his condition could not be stabilised. At around 5.00am on the 8 May 2004, he was informed that Graeme had suffered internal bleeding and he was receiving heart massage after suffering a cardiac arrest. At around 6.00am he was told that his son had died.
Graeme was only 16 when he died. He was Mr & Mrs McGinn’s only son. They made a formal complaint about Graeme’s care at the hospital on the 19 May 2004. They were unhappy with the Hospital Trust’s answer to his complaint and the handling of the complaint generally and they contacted the Healthcare Commission on or about the 15 August 2004. In their report dated the 11 August 2006, they were very critical of the hospital not only in how Graeme had been treated following his road accident but also on how they had dealt with Mr & Mrs McGinn’s complaint. Following a letter from our firm, the Hospital Trust accepted liability in full for what had happened to Graeme.
This is a very sad case. With proper care, Graeme’s death could have been avoided. The tragedy is compounded, however, by the very low level of compensation which was payable to Mr & Mrs McGinn as Graeme’s next of kin. It is not appreciated amongst the general public that when a death occurs due to someone else’s negligence that unless the next of kin were dependent on the deceased financially or for “services” at the time of his or her death and had a reasonable expectation of being so into the future, the damages payable is normally limited to a Bereavement award (a derisory £10,000.00) and any funeral expenses and perhaps something for the deceased’s pre-death suffering. The Bereavement award is only payable if the deceased is either your spouse or your child provided your child is under 18.
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