Failure to recognise asthmatic emergency
The Claimant instructed us shortly after the sad death of his wife after she had attended her local hospital as an emergency admission in 2006, both in relation to the inquest and the subsequent clinical negligence claim.
Briefly, the Claimant’s wife (and mother of 3 daughters) was admitted to the hospital by ambulance in the early hours on 19 December 2006, with extreme shortness of breath. She had previously been prescribed antibiotics and steroids by her GP for a chest infection.
After assessment in the medical assessment unit (MAU), she was diagnosed with acute bronchitis secondary to a chest infection and treated with fluids, oxygen, antibiotics and steroids. However, staff failed to undertake regular checks of her peak flow and arterial blood gases and she continued to deteriorate and that deterioration was not appreciated by the staff in the MAU. There was no differential diagnosis of acute asthma and she was not transferred to the Intensive Care Unit for management.
Sadly, the Claimant’s wife suffered a respiratory and cardiac arrest and died in the early hours of 20 December 2006.
The autopsy confirmed the cause of death as asthma.
Proceedings were issued and served on the Defendant NHS Trust and a settlement was reached shortly afterwards without an admission of liability in 2010. The settlement had to receive Court approval as an element of the claim for compensation was for the benefit of one of the Claimant’s daughters who was a minor. The settlement achieved for the family was in excess of £100,000.
Towards the latter part of the claim, we arranged for the Claimant to be put in contact with a charity, Asthma UK, which has provided support to the family and have also used some of the learning points from the facts in this case to disseminate to their membership in their monthly magazine.