Fatal Injuries & Hospital Care

While every medical institution and professional will endeavour to give the highest attention and medical care as possible however, occasionally errors are made resulting in the death of a patient.

When a death does occur suspiciously, evidentally it does not necessarily follow that the death was caused by an act or omission of the hospital staff.

On the flip side of the coin there are unfortunabte circumstances where this does arise and this is not easy for a family to deal with.

When a fatal injury occurs which was quite possibly avoidable in a medical context the family members will have alot of questions.

Some questions on the process which may arise are :

· The diagnose procedure: when was it done and could it have been done sooner?

· Failure to diagnose correctly. This is not a straightforward matter as some medical issues are complicated and as such a doctor might not have been wrong in diagnosing incorrectly.

· Delay or failure to refer the patient to a specialist’s attention.

· During surgery: were all procedures done correctly?

· Prescribing incorrect medication especially where the patient has an allergy. This amounts to failure to find out the patient’s history/allergies.

· Failing to have the patient monitored.

· Failure by the staff to co-ordinate to the patient’s needs. Understaffing of medical personnel is not an excuse.

· Errors made during surgery.

· Below standard medical care

Bringing a case for a fatal injury claim

Firstly, there is a two-year limitation provision for taking such cases.

There is a lot of work involved in taking these kinds of cases. Gathering all the evidence which includes the medical records while the deceased was in the hospital. These are vitally important as your solicitor will want to get a medical expert to give their opinion on what happened. Your solicitor will seek these records on your behalf.

When a trajedy occurs there will be practical considersations to assess if a case is taken such as:

· Loss of Dependency, when the deceased was the breadwinner in a family, compensation can be awarded to make up for this loss.

· Loss of Services: This covers the contribution the deceased made to his/her household, such as childcare; cooking; garden maintenance; general repairs

· The mental distress caused

· Special damages which are financial losses which have resulted

· Loss of consortium

It must be stressed that medical negligence cases are complex and to be successful there must have been a wrongful act or negligence by the medical professional/hospital in conducting their work and this is the task of ones legal team.