Lawford Kidd's Blog

A man who suffered severe brain damage as a baby as a result of an error by medical staff has been awarded compensation amounting to £7.3 million, reports the Daily Mail.

Maternity staff at Luton and Dunstable Hospital failed to give him a vitamin K injection after his birth. The injection is routinely given to new born babies to help reduce the risk of internal bleeding.

He suffered a brain haemorrhage three months later, causing brain damage that left him with severe physical and cognitive disabilities and reliant on 24-hour care.

An eight-year-old girl has been awarded compensation amounting to several million pounds after she sustained a serious brain injury at birth, reports the BBC.

Ayla Ellison’s birth at Furness General Hospital in Barrow was described as “traumatic” and she was deprived of oxygen, causing catastrophic brain injury.

She is totally immobile and has to be fed through a tube. In addition, she is unable to regulate her own body temperature, leaving her at constant risk of developing hypothermia.

The family of a woman who died while in the care of staff at Alexandria Hospital in Redditch have received an undisclosed amount in compensation from Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust, reports the BBC.

Fifty-five year old Margaret Pitt had suffered from Type 1 diabetes for around 30 years. While she was in hospital, staff failed to take a blood sugar reading to monitor her glucose levels. She subsequently suffered a severe brain injury and died.

According to the BBC, the hospital trust apologised unreservedly for its “failures” in caring for Mrs Pitt, and said that improvements had been made to its clinical procedures and staff training to prevent similar errors from reoccurring.

A Report published by the Public Accounts Committee for Northern Ireland has highlighted that, while the vast majority of services provided by Health and Social Care Trusts in NI are of a very high quality, patients and service users can suffer largely preventable harm and suffering.

Speaking at the launch of the Report, the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Michaela Boyle, MLA, said:

"The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety told the Committee that, between July 2004 and March 2012, there were 2,084 serious adverse incidents reported in the health and social care service. Eight hundred and thirteen of these involved the death of a patient or service user, including 488 which related to suicides. While not all of the serious adverse incidents reported were as a direct result of the care these patients received, the overall figure is still shocking and suggests that the standards of care being delivered by health and social care bodies require continued scrutiny and improvement."