Incorrect Assessment / Inappropriate Care

In June 2014, Julian Wilson settled a claim on behalf of Mr M.

Mr M suffered what appeared, even to the lay eye, to be a stroke.  His daughter called an ambulance and an ambulance attended along with a paramedic.  The paramedic, in breach of duty, sent the ambulance away having diagnosed only an anxiety attack.  One and a half hours later at 6 p.m. Mr C suffered a second stroke.  An ambulance was called and he was admitted to hospital.  He underwent a CT scan which detected an occluded blood vessel and subsequently he underwent thrombolysis.  Thrombolysis is often called “clot busting”. A clot busting drug is used to disperse the clot and return the blood supply to the brain.

Mr M suffered a number of injuries including slurring of speech, weakness and numbness on his face, weakness and numbness in his legs and right arm, loss of organisational and problem-solving skills, slight change of personality and mood and shortness of temper, with short term memory loss and loss of initiative. However, there was a degree of improvement by the time of the case settled in June 2104 and Mr M was, at that time, able to return to work.

Mrs M pursued a complaint and instructions were taken in August 2011. Having obtained Mr M’s medical records a Letter of Claim was prepared and breach of duty, subject to causation, was admitted by the NHSLA in June 2011. This meant that we needed to show that earlier intervention in Mr M’s case would have produced a better outcome for Mr M. The case was settled in June 2014 for £230,000.