§ PUBLISHED JUDGMENT · 2023

Bayless & Ors v Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

[2023] EWHC 2986 (KB)·High Court (King's Bench Division)·23 November 2023

The Trust admitted it missed an aortic dissection that emergency surgery would probably have cured, and settled the fatal claim for £340,000. When the widow and children later sued for psychiatric injury from witnessing the death, the Trust tried to strike that out but withdrew after discovering the earlier settlement had never been court-approved.

Outcome

Claimant succeeded

Sum stated in judgment

£340,000

Claim type

Fatal Medical Negligence

Decided

Liability decided at trial

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§ WHAT HAPPENED

The facts, in brief.

Defendant: Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · this trust’s claims data

Injury: Death of a 42-year-old father from an undiagnosed acute type A aortic dissection days after attending hospital with chest pain

Specialty: Emergency medicine / cardiothoracic · England

§ WHAT THE COURT SAID

In the judgment’s own words.

“By a Part 36 offer made on 29 August 2019, the Trust offered to settle the claim for £340,000. Such offer was accepted on 2 September 2019.”

The money

£340,000 Part 36 offer accepted in September 2019 for the widow's and children's 1934 Act and Fatal Accidents Act claims (bereavement and dependency). The settlement was never approved by the court as required for children. The 2023 judgment ordered the Trust to pay the costs of its withdrawn strike-out application against the family's later secondary-victim claim.

§ WHY IT MATTERS

What this case shows.

Fatal claims involving children need court approval of any settlement or it may not bind them. A missed aortic dissection in a chest-pain patient was accepted as negligent and fatal.

About fatal medical negligence claims →

§ MORE FATAL MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE JUDGMENTS

Claim failed

Ritchie v The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

[2026] EWCC 50·2026·Liability decided at trial

A widow brought a dependency and bereavement claim against the hospital after her husband died from an infection picked up during heart surgery. Because he had already settled his own claim in full against the equipment manufacturer while alive, the court held no Fatal Accidents Act claim survived for his dependants.

A dependant's claim under the Fatal Accidents Act only exists if the deceased could still have sued at the moment of death. Settling a claim in the patient's lifetime can extinguish the family's later dependency claim, so settlement terms need careful thought where death is foreseeable.

Claim failed

Runciman v University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

[2024] EWHC 1800 (KB)·2024·Liability decided at trial

A widower claimed that doctors at Southampton General misdiagnosed his wife's rare cerebral venous thrombosis as a stroke, gave her clot-busting drugs and delayed the correct treatment, leading to her death. The judge found the clinicians acted reasonably on the presentation and that even earlier correct treatment would probably not have saved her.

A tragic outcome after a rare condition is missed does not by itself prove negligence; the question is whether a reasonable body of doctors would have acted the same way on the information available. Causation must be proved separately.

Claimant succeeded£1.2M

Healey v McGrath & Anor

[2024] EWHC 1360 (KB)·2024·Liability decided at trial

Mr Healey died nine days after bowel cancer surgery at a private hospital when a leak at the surgical join was not recognised in time. The hospital settled the widow's claim for £1.2 million and the court ordered the surgeon to bear 75% of it, finding his failure to diagnose the leak the principal cause of death.

Post-operative deterioration after bowel surgery must prompt urgent consideration of a leak. Both the private hospital and the individual surgeon can be liable, with the court apportioning responsibility between them.

All fatal medical negligence judgments →

Contains information licensed under the Open Justice - Licence v2.0. Judgments from Find Case Law, The National Archives. Summaries are ours; amounts only where printed in the judgment.

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