When Grannia East was admitted to the Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport, Hampshire, in 2001, the then 35-year-old could have been forgiven for assuming that a gallstone operation was a relatively routine affair. Unfortunately, Mrs East suffered a complication during the medical procedure, which serves to highlight how any surgical operation carries a risk of death or serious injury.
After aspirating her vomit following the surgery, Mrs East suffered a near-fatal cardiac arrest; fortunately, doctors were able to save her life but Mrs East, who is now 44, has been left with memory and concentration problems as a result – she is confined to a wheelchair. As such, the Court of Appeal last week ruled in favour of Mrs East after the Ministry of Defence, which ran the now-closed hospital, questioned an earlier decision to award the claimant £3.45 million in damages.
Mrs East's story is one that is shared by thousands of other patients whose routine operations have ended up in personal injury claims. Clinical negligence is a complex area of the law that is subject to different legal scrutiny than most other types of personal injury claims, but it is clear that doctors must uphold their duty of care to patients by administering care in a way that is of the same standard as a responsible body of medical opinion.
Negligence is established where the doctor has acted outside of or contrary to this standard, whilst it is also necessary to prove that the duty of care itself was breached and that the breach caused the harm. In the case of Mrs East, the Ministry of Defence had challenged the judge's verdict in the first instance on grounds of causation, but Mr Justice Ouseley of the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the respondent.
Speaking after the ruling was made, Mrs East's husband, Shawn East, said: "We have had a very hard fight getting compensation for Grannia but we have a magnificent legal team who fought brilliantly for us all the way. I am very pleased that the case has now settled before we had to go through another trial. It means that we can now get on and adapt a property for Grannia that is a suitable place to care for her".
Mrs East's solicitor, John White, added: "This is a landmark case and important points of clinical negligence law were decided in the High Court and Court of Appeal. Grannia has suffered terrible injuries with tragic effects on her life".
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