§ PUBLISHED JUDGMENT · 2026

Callum Joe Guest v Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

[2026] EWHC 704 (KB)·High Court (King's Bench Division), Manchester District Registry·31 March 2026

During long spinal surgery for scoliosis and chest wall deformity the claimant deteriorated, arrested while being turned over, and was left with severe sight loss. He alleged the anaesthetist negligently failed to treat a raised potassium reading, but the judge found that reading was spurious and the arrest was caused by a pulmonary embolism, so the claim failed.

Outcome

Claim failed

Sum stated in judgment

Not stated

Claim type

Anaesthetic Negligence

Decided

Liability decided at trial

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§ WHAT HAPPENED

The facts, in brief.

Defendant: Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust · this trust’s claims data

Injury: Cardiac arrest while being repositioned at the end of prolonged scoliosis surgery on 29 May 2019, followed by bilateral posterior ischaemic optic neuropathy causing severe loss of vision

Specialty: Anaesthesia (scoliosis / spinal surgery) · England

§ WHAT THE COURT SAID

In the judgment’s own words.

“It follows from my finding as to the cause of the cardiac arrest that the claim must be dismissed.”

The money

Claim dismissed; no damages figure stated.

§ WHY IT MATTERS

What this case shows.

Even after a devastating complication a claim fails if the court finds the true cause was a non-negligent event, so proving the mechanism of injury is often the decisive issue.

About anaesthetic negligence claims →

§ MORE ANAESTHETIC NEGLIGENCE JUDGMENTS

Claimant succeeded£1.3M

Parsons v Isle of Wight NHS Trust

[2023] EWHC 3115 (KB)·2023·Liability decided at trial

Before bowel cancer surgery, anaesthetists made three failed epidural attempts while the patient was awake and then seven more after putting her under anaesthetic, one of which pierced her spinal cord. Ritchie J held the anaesthetist should have obtained her informed consent before the unconscious attempts and offered alternatives, and that this failure caused the injury.

Consent is not a one-off: when a procedure changes course (here, moving to unconscious epidural attempts), the patient must be told of the options and risks again. The full agreed £1.3m followed from that single consent failure.

All anaesthetic 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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