Hospital Investigation: An internal investigation by the hospital resulted in a Serious Untoward Incident Report, and the hospital admitted responsibility for the breach of duty and negligence. Despite this, the hospital’s representatives spent considerable time defending the value of the claim, attempting to reduce the damages awarded.

Legal Battle: SJP Law managed the claim over five years, leveraging the expertise of medical professionals. The case was finally settled out of court, securing an award that would significantly improve our client’s quality of life.

Impact of the Settlement: The settlement allows our client to focus on her future without worrying about her inability to work. She can now afford physiotherapy to improve her mobility and engage with case management services for assistance with daily tasks such as grocery shopping and attending the local leisure centre.

Enhanced Quality of Life: One of the main benefits of the settlement is that our client can now employ someone to handle routine tasks like washing, ironing, and cleaning. This support relieves her elderly parents and children from these responsibilities, allowing her to spend more quality time with her family.

New Home and Independence: The settlement also enables our client to purchase a more suitable property, making it easier for her to move around due to her mobility issues. She can now enjoy a garden, which she had missed since the incident.

Conclusion: This case highlights the importance of thorough legal support in securing justice and improving the quality of life for individuals affected by medical negligence. The dedicated efforts of SJP Law have provided our client with the financial stability and support needed to rebuild her life and enjoy her time with her family.

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Immediate Support: At the time of the accident, our client had a newborn child. SJP Law secured interim payments to fund a nursery placement, ensuring her child was well cared for during her recovery.

Care Regime: Interim payments were also secured to establish a comprehensive care regime involving both professional carers and family members. This support was crucial in managing her day-to-day needs and ensuring her well-being.

Adapted Accommodation: Recognizing the need for suitable living arrangements, a bungalow was built and adapted to meet our client’s specific needs. This was funded through interim payments, providing her with a safe and accessible home environment.

Expert Guidance: SJP Law assembled a team of high-level medical, accommodation, financial, and other experts to assess our client’s needs. Their evidence was instrumental in presenting a compelling case to the Defendant, securing maximum compensation to support her for the rest of her life.

Court of Protection: Due to her continuing disabilities, our client is a protected party under the Court of Protection, requiring court approval of the settlement. This ensures that her finances are managed in her best interest.

Ongoing Support: SJP Law continue to administer the awarded damages, acting as trustees and providing investment advice and professional support to the family. The professional care regime remains in place, ensuring our client receives the necessary support for the rest of her life.

Conclusion: This case highlights the importance of comprehensive legal and professional support in securing a future for individuals with severe disabilities. The dedication and expertise of SJP Law has provided our client with the financial stability and care she needs to live as comfortably as possible.

The post Helping a family re-build their lives appeared first on Medical Accident Claimline.

Due to the meninges infection, our daughter suffered from subdural empyema on her brain and had to have bore hole surgery to her head to relieve the pressure. She was then put on a course of treatment to fight the infection.

Whilst we thought she was recovering in hospital, we noticed that her smile was lop sided and there was obviously another problem. Our daughter had suffered similar effects to that of a mini stroke and also started to have seizures before leaving hospital. This led to her having learning and cognitive difficulties as she was growing up.

We coped with our daughter’s disabilities by ourselves for many years and it was not until my husband heard a radio advert by Stamp, Jackson & Procter LLP back in 2000 that we decided to seek advice.

By this time our daughter was about 13 years old and it was becoming more and more difficult for my husband and I to balance everyday life and her care.

We spoke with a Solicitor at Stamp, Jackson and Procter LLP and he decided that we had a case against our local NHS Trust. After a couple of years Neil Holland took over the case and he worked extremely hard for us to gain a settlement. When we finally received the settlement we had already had talks with Neil Holland about the pros and cons of setting up a Trust to manage the award, or whether to use the services of the Court of Protection.

We decided the best option for us was to set up a Trust managed by Neil Holland and ourselves. The Trust has an investment portfolio which is looked after by the Wealth Management Team at Stamp Jackson & Procter LLP.

The Trust receives a yearly payment from the NHS Litigation Authority which is added to the Trust.

This Trust has helped to purchase a property for our daughter to live in, that is located near to us and is adapted for our daughter’s needs, the Trust also helps to pay for support workers who provide care and support on a daily basis to make sure our daughter is properly cared for. We now no longer need to worry about the payment of bills to care for our daughter and this allows us to spend quality time with her.

We did not know what to do when we realised that our daughter was no longer the same girl, aged just 1 year old. We were simply focused on caring for her as any parent would be. Our attention is now turning to the long-term care that our daughter will need as we get older and physically less capable.

This is why we chose to set up the Trust with SJP Law as they have been with us from day one and have become friends to the family in helping to provide advice, contacts for help, wealth management advice, a plan for our daughter’s future care and even helped with having our daughters house signed off by the Health and Safety Executive to make sure it was suitable for her needs.

Having now known Neil Holland and the team at SJP Law for over 12 years, we would thoroughly recommend their services to anyone who is in a similar position and needs legal help and advice to care for a relative who has suffered from a life changing delayed diagnosis.

The post Delayed diagnosis of bacterial meningitis and the benefits of setting up a Trust appeared first on Medical Accident Claimline.

With a family to support and having lost his job and no prospect of working again he was running into severe financial problems when Stamp Jackson & Procter started to get him back on track.

The engineer had effectively lost his career and needed help to rebuild his life. “It becomes a shared experience. You have to work closely in going through all the procedures but when, as it was in my case, you have an understanding person to deal with, there are so many other problems you can discuss and get support on. Our solicitor, and everybody in the firm, were so helpful in answering our questions and making sure we knew exactly what was going on. We trust them and tend to leave everything to them, but they take extra care to ensure we are always fully informed.”

The post Recovering from a catastrophic injury appeared first on Medical Accident Claimline.

I got worse over the next few days. My father found me at home a few days later slurring my words and disorientated (although I do not remember it as my memory of the events has gone now). We went back to the hospital and this time I was scanned and told that the violent headache I suffered a few days before was in fact a haemorrhage. I was told that I needed to be admitted for emergency surgery to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately before the operation happened I fell into a coma before the surgeons could operate. Eventually I came out of the coma and I was taught to walk and talk again before being sent to a nursing home to recover. For a long time I was unable to deal with my affairs and my father did it for me. I was also unable to go back to work as an electronics engineer for a long time and even when I got back to work I could not do my old job as it was too much for me.

My family were unhappy that the hospital had discharged me when I was suffering from a brain bleed. My brother researched local solicitors expert in dealing with brain injury cases and he contacted Stamp Jackson & Procter after looking at their website. When I was up to it my father took me to see Neil Holland. It was the first of many face to face meetings we had. We felt happy and instructed Neil to look into my case.

We were worried about legal costs but Neil was able to use an existing insurance policy so it cost me nothing to get started. The insurance cover ran out but it did not matter because Stamp Jackson & Procter offered to pay for all the experts expenses and act for me on a No Win No Fee instead. In the end I did not have to pay any legal costs.

To help assess my case we put together a team of experts, some of whom had a worldwide reputation, who had decades of experience in neurosurgery and rehabilitation after brain injury. Tests were done to show which parts of my brain were not functioning properly so that we could work out what type of help and support I needed. Neil and his team spent a long time taking witness statements from family, old friends and work colleagues to help explain the test results and to prove what I was like before the bleed. After this assessment process I had a much better understanding of why my brain was not functioning like it used to and why I needed help and support to function independently. I would not have known this if it were not for the detailed assessment process I went through.

Neil introduced me to the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust whom are experts in helping people recover from and cope with brain injury. By then I understood that I needed some support so I agreed to work with a case manager from BIRT. They gave me the support and prompting I needed to function better independently and I have used them ever since.

Neil spoke to me about the difficulties with my case and we had face to face meetings with all of the experts as well as the specialist barrister we hired to advise on the case. I was advised on the strengths and weaknesses and told how much my case was worth.

We put all of this to the Hospitals solicitors. They admitted that they should not have discharged me but said that their experts had advised them that all the damage had been caused to my brain by then so they would not be offering me any compensation. My team of experts disagreed with this and said we should keep fighting so Neil started Court action for me.

The hospital’s solicitor’s experts asked if they could do tests on me which I agreed to but I was astonished when the results came back and said there was very little wrong with my brain. It made me angry that they were trying to paint me this way. Neil and my team of experts fought for me and spent more time gathering evidence to disprove the defence case.

The hospital’s solicitors eventually agreed to meet us to discuss settlement terms but the offers they made at the meeting were below what Neil and my barrister had told me to expect. It was a lot of money but I was advised to keep pushing for a fair settlement or take the case to trial. I knew my team believed in my case.

A few days before the trial was due to start Neil called to say the Hospital’s solicitors had now agreed to pay the terms I had asked for months ago at the meeting and did I want to settle. I did not want a trial and was more than happy with the terms.

My story with Stamp Jackson & Procter does not end there. Neil suggested that I should protect my compensation as it had to last a long time. He gave me some advice on how to do that. I discussed what to do with it with my family, banks and advisors. I thought about it for quite a while. In the end I asked Neil and Stamp Jackson & Procter if they would look after it for me because I trusted them. I was advised to put the money in Trust. I asked my brother and Neil to be trustees for me which they agreed to do. I know my money is safe and my family are helping look after it for me.

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Our client was involved in a Road Traffic Accident whilst driving a fork lift truck on the road. Our client was approaching a roundabout when the defendant decided to overtake them in their HGV. At the same time a vehicle exited the roundabout causing the defendant to swerve back into the left lane too soon, causing them to hit the front of our client’s vehicle with the back of theirs.

The impact was so violent that it caused our client’s fork lift to be thrown into the air and land on top of a lamp post. Our client suffered severe injuries and was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary for treatment.
 
He was diagnosed with severe damage to the spine affecting L1 and L4 and required surgery to insert rods; he had also suffered further fractured vertebra and 2 contorted vertebra.
 
Liability was conceded by the defendant. The injuries sustained by our client were likely to impact his employment as a farm Manager in later life.
 
Our client was provided with rehabilitation under the Rehab Code to help him back to a relatively normal life.
 
Our client received a six-figure compensation settlement which will help him in the years to come.
 
“I can’t thank Mark enough at SJP Law, he has been spot on in helping to explain and answer any questions I had as the case progressed. He always kept me updated very quickly, responding in the same day. I am 100% satisfied, he was really thorough, made everything clear and easy to understand.
 
I will thoroughly recommend Mark to anyone if they need legal help with a Personal Injury case.”

The post Misdiagnosis of a subarachnoid haemorrhage appeared first on Medical Accident Claimline.

The Case: The family believed that serious negligence and mismanagement during the birth caused the injury. They sought our support to obtain the necessary compensation for lifelong care. The hospital failed to involve a senior obstetrician despite the client’s heart rate dropping abnormally low. Additionally, key medical equipment was not maintained properly, leading to inadequate monitoring of the heart rate for over half an hour. Several risk factors for both the mother and baby were also overlooked.

The Client: The client’s condition requires constant care due to learning difficulties, communication and behavioural problems, impaired mobility, and low dexterity. He needs assistance with everyday tasks such as washing, dressing, and eating. He will never be able to live independently, work, or manage his own finances.

The Settlement: After taking action against the hospital trust, they admitted liability, and we secured an out-of-court settlement. The client received a lump sum of £2,850,000, along with yearly payments of £73,750 until age 18, increasing to £150,000 per year until age 65, and then £185,000 annually for the rest of his life.

Impact: The compensation allows the family to provide the necessary professional care for the client now and in the future. He can live in private accommodation with constant support from a professional team who will manage his fund to ensure it continues to meet his needs.

Conclusion: This settlement has enabled our client and his family to achieve the best possible quality of life, ensuring he receives the high-quality, lifelong care he needs.

The post Brain Injury at Birth appeared first on Medical Accident Claimline.

Our client had suffered with reduced hearing in their right ear since birth. In early 2020 a hospital referral in respect of this hearing loss was made and our client was subsequently listed for an operation to insert a right bone anchored hearing aid (BAHA). Our client was admitted for surgery in January 2021.

Following this surgical procedure our client awoke to feel pain around their left ear and quickly came to the realisation that the wrong ear had been operated on.

Our client was understandably upset and distressed to learn that the implant had been placed on the wrong side. As a result of this negligence our client unnecessarily required a further operation to remove the implant from the incorrect side and sadly developed an infection in the wound, which required antibiotic treatment.

Our client has been left with a visible scar to the left side of their head, approximately 50-60mm in length. The scar site remains painful and sensitive to touch and this symptom is likely to be permanent.

4 months after the first operation our client was admitted back into hospital to have the installation of the BAHA on the right side of their head.

As a further result of this negligent operation our client also experienced exacerbation of low mood, anxiety and depression.

Liability was admitted by the Defendant Trust and a five figure out of Court settlement obtained for our client.

“Emma White at SJP Law took on our case against the Consultant whom incorrectly operated on my husband’s ear. Emma was very thorough in all aspects of the case and explained every detail to us as the case progressed.

Emma kept in touch with the Consultant and psychologists to help make sure my husband received the best care whilst the procedure was corrected.

Emma has been fantastic, friendly, personable and very helpful in helping us reach a settlement with our negligence claim. We would thoroughly recommend Emma to anyone in a similar situation.”

The post Surgical procedure to insert a right bone anchored hearing aid (BAHA) goes wrong appeared first on Medical Accident Claimline.