Father's Death in Hospital - Advice Needed

[hector205]

Dear All,

 

I am a NHS complainant and my mother is having difficult getting a no win no fee solicitor on board. My 80 year old Mother owns her home and this is worth £120,000, so she does not qualify for legal aid. Its a bit scary for her to get a loan with a charge on the house. Is there any other options are available to my Mom with regard legal help?

 

I understand there is a time limit of three years for legal claim, can this be extended as he died on the 20th June 2008?

 

It taken so long because we waited 8 months for the hospital to reply to our first letter and 10 months to respond to my second letter. I do not know what my father died of, the cause of death listed on the death certificate was not the cause of death. I found the doctors written xray request form in the medical notes dated 20th June 2008 showing the presenting clinical problem of a bowel perforation/strangulated hernia. The hospital let my father die without intervention and without pain relief, we witnessed him dying in severe pain for 5 hours, it was horrific.

 

Sorry to have burdened you with this, I'm pretty desperate as time is running out.

 

Kind regards

[Desperate Daniella]

Hi Hector,

 

I've had an alert that you have tried to pm me and my inbox is full. Let me clear it tomorrow and you can pm me again if you would like to.

 

Most of the personal injury lawyers will take on a client if they feel there is a case and they won't charge you anything up front. They will get their fees from the settlement from the other side.

 

The three years limit runs out in June, but a lot can change in three months.

 

DD

[Night Owl]

Hi Hector,

 

so sorry to hear such an awful account.

Does your mum have leagl cover with her house contents insurance? just a thought.

[zippygbr]

With respect to he 3 years, iirc it's three years to Start the claim ... if you decide to go ahead as long as the necessary first stages have been completed by 20/6/11 then it can continue,

 

As others have suggested legal expenses insurance on household insurance may cover the initial parts of the process or if a clinical negligence Lawyer considers it's a worthwhile case to persue it's likely that a no win no fee deal could be offered.

 

Without prying too far what is the certificated cause of death? and why do you disagree with this on the basis of a suspicion of a bowel obstruction / perforation ...and was the X-ray / other imaging in question ever performed? or the existence or otherwise of a obstruction or perforation demonstrated at post mortem ...

 

It may be that the chap in question was already severely septic before his arrival in hospital and his clinical condition such that it would be highly likely that he would not survive anyway, but without all the relevant information this is pure speculation. In my own practice i have seen patients who themselves or because of poor decision making by primary care / care homes have not been admitted to an Acute hospital before they are literally at deaths door, compound this with the poor state, resourcing, staffing and status of Acute Medicine / surgical acute take in some hospitals ...

[hector205]

Dear All,

 

Thank you for your advice, it is very much appreciated.

 

To summarise the case, my father was admitted to hospital with a chest infection and was found to have lung cancer. He was discharged five days later and an outpatient bronchoscopy was arranged the following day to find out the type and stage. After the bronchoscopy my father seemed very poorly and instead of improving, he deteriorated. He was re-admitted as an emergency two weeks later. He spent a further 5 days in hospital and was diagnosed with limited stage small cell lung cancer. He was stablised and was in the process of discharge when this acute abdominal emergency took place. The doctor said it was either a strangulated hernia and or/bowel perforation, this was based on a past clinical history of groin hernia and the bedside examination. The xray report and the medical notes supports this view, however due to a breakdown in communication he was treated for faecal impaction i.e enema & saline drip. Therefore his pain (recorded as severe) was not monitored and was given no pain relief: five hours later he died. I have the medical records and a copy of the xray images on a cd disc, however these need to be looked at by an expert witness, so I'm a bit stuck.

 

Any thoughts on the way forward?

 

Kindest regards.

 

 

[hector205]

Hi All

 

Mom never had legal assistance on her home insurance, however this year the insurance company offered this automatically for free. I have not enquired but I guess she's not covered because the event happened in 2008, when she was not insured.

 

Kind regards