Parents win medical negligence claim for misdiagnosis

A family from Wrexham have won their medical negligence claim against a health board for a wrong diagnosis that left their daughter suffering severe brain damage, reports the BBC.

Kate Pierce was only nine-months-old when she became ill and her parents took her to Wrexham Maelor Hospital. She was suffering  from pneumococcal meningitis, but a junior doctor at the hospital wrongly diagnosed it as viral tonsillitis, and said she was well enough to go home. The condition was only correctly diagnosed when her parents took her back to hospital after her health continued to deteriorate. Kate is now six, and will need 24-hour care for the rest of her life.

According to the BBC, the health board has accepted 75% responsibility for the claim, and a hearing will be held to decide on the level of damages, which are expected to run into seven figures.