§ PUBLISHED JUDGMENT · 2024

Healey v McGrath & Anor

[2024] EWHC 1360 (KB)·High Court (King's Bench Division)·7 June 2024

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.

Outcome

Claimant succeeded

Sum stated in judgment

£1,200,000

Claim type

Fatal Medical Negligence

Decided

Liability decided at trial

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§ WHAT HAPPENED

The facts, in brief.

Defendant: Mr Daniel McGrath (consultant surgeon); Ramsay Health Care UK Operations Ltd (Berkshire Independent Hospital)

Injury: Death from sepsis and multi-organ failure after an unrecognised anastomotic leak following right hemicolectomy

Specialty: Colorectal surgery · England

§ WHAT THE COURT SAID

In the judgment’s own words.

“Mr McGrath to pay Ramsay 75% of the agreed damages compromised for £1,200,000”

The money

Widow's claim settled by Ramsay for £1,200,000 plus £417,500 costs; this judgment is contribution proceedings apportioning 75% of damages to the surgeon

§ WHY IT MATTERS

What this case shows.

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.

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.

Claim failed

Paul and another v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust; Polmear and another v Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust; Purchase v Ahmed

[2024] UKSC 1·2024·Appeal decision

Three families sought damages for psychiatric injury after watching a relative die from a condition that doctors had negligently failed to diagnose. The Supreme Court (Lord Burrows dissenting) held that doctors do not owe relatives a duty to protect them from the shock of witnessing a patient's death or medical crisis.

Relatives who develop a psychiatric illness from witnessing a loved one's death caused by medical negligence generally cannot claim as secondary victims. Their remedies are limited to the Fatal Accidents Act dependency and bereavement claims.

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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