Misdiagnosis of celiac disease – Recognised psychiatric injury not established. Where a claimant had been misdiagnosed as suffering from coeliac disease and had been on a gluten free diet for a number of years, the loss claimed for psychiatric injury, which was less than a recognised psychiatric illness, was not recoverable at law. The balance of the claim was for economic loss and was time-barred under the Limitation Act 1980.
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Bolam – No negligent breach of duty. A senior registrar in paediatric cardiology had not been negligent in deciding to reduce the dose of diuretics medication and arrange a review in a month in respect of a child who had a congenital heart defect and had suffered a large pericardial effusion since, at the time of the decisions, an echocardiogram had shown only residual pericardial effusion. The recurrence of the latter ten days later and the consequent cardiac failure and brain damage was not t ...
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Approach to Bolitho Principle. A trial judge's approach in a trial on the issue of liability to the legal principle in Bolitho v City and Hackney Health Authority (1997) 3 WLR 1151 was correct, but he should not have embarked upon it until expert witnesses had had a proper opportunity to explain why medical practice took the position that the use of open questions was a proper method to diagnose a condition.
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Failure to re-test following diagnosis of Chlamydia – No breach of duty. A general practitioner was not in breach of her duty of care to a pregnant woman where medical records indicated that she had given the woman standard advice about a sexually transmitted disease further to a hospital's diagnosis of chlamydia. It had also not been proved to the requisite standard that the hospital's failure to re-test the pregnant woman for chlamydia had caused her son's premature birth.
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Where a doctor had failed to advise that the consequences of an injection might cause discomfort during imminent surgery he should not be liable for the unforeseeable development of a vaccine strain disease caused by the operation.
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The medical professional's evidence as to the advice he provided was to be preferred to that of the Claimants despite his failure to record such advice in notes.
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Solicitors: Although the Defendant firm had admittedly served the incorrect notice in respect of the renewal of a tenancy under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, as no compensation had been payable to the actual tenant under the mistakenly served notice, no recovery could be made on that basis. The key concern was whether the negligent service of the notice had been a material cause of the failure of the negotiations for a new tenancy. As the sum ultimately agreed in respect of dilapidations was ...
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Duty of Care – Forceps Delivery: The Court held that the Defendant hospital had breached its duty of care by proceeding to deliver a baby by forceps delivery on the ward in circumstances where accepted obstetric management technique had required a trial of forceps in theatre. The resulting cerebral palsy suffered by the baby had been caused by the hospital's negligence.
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No negligence where staff failed to diagnose and treat congenital spinal defect: Notwithstanding the claimant's symptoms, neither her doctor nor medical staff at a hospital where she was examined were at fault for failing to diagnose and treat a congenital spinal defect that resulted in her contracting meningitis and subsequently suffering from a disability.
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Failure to provide prompt and appropriate care and intensive support: The defendant hospital's negligent failure to provide prompt and appropriate care with intensive support was held to have caused the death of the claimant's wife from pneumonia.
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