§ PUBLISHED JUDGMENT · 2014

Leigh v London Ambulance Service NHS Trust

[2014] EWHC 286 (QB)·High Court (Queen's Bench Division)·20 February 2014

Ms Leigh dislocated her kneecap boarding a bus and was trapped in severe pain for about 50 minutes before an ambulance arrived; the trust admitted 17 minutes of that delay was negligent. The judge found the negligent delay made a material contribution to her PTSD, that her dissociative seizures were part of the PTSD, and assessed damages at £522,379 plus interest.

Outcome

Claimant succeeded

Sum stated in judgment

£522,379

Claim type

A&E Negligence

Decided

Liability and damages decided at trial

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§ WHAT HAPPENED

The facts, in brief.

Defendant: London Ambulance Service NHS Trust · this trust’s claims data

Injury: Post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative seizures after a 17-minute admitted negligent ambulance delay while trapped on a bus with a dislocated kneecap

Specialty: Ambulance / emergency response; psychiatry · England

§ WHAT THE COURT SAID

In the judgment’s own words.

“For the above reasons, judgment should be entered for the claimant with damages assessed at £522,379 plus whatever is the correct interest calculation at the above rates.”

The money

Damages assessed at £522,379 plus interest: general damages £60,000, past losses £116,002, future losses £346,377. Breach admitted; causation and quantum decided by the court.

§ WHY IT MATTERS

What this case shows.

Even a short negligent ambulance delay can found a substantial claim where it materially contributes to a serious psychiatric injury. Damages can include lost earnings and pension where the injury ends the claimant's career.

About a&e negligence claims →

§ MORE A&E NEGLIGENCE JUDGMENTS

Claimant succeeded

JBX v Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust

[2026] EWHC 2294 (KB)·2026·Damages assessed at trial

An eight-year-old brought to Frimley Park Hospital in January 2018 with severe breathing difficulty was discharged the same afternoon instead of being admitted and given steroids; the next day he had a cardiac arrest and catastrophic brain injury. The Trust admitted negligence and causation and this judgment decides disputed heads of damages.

Sending a child home from A&E with signs of life-threatening asthma, rather than admitting and treating, was admitted to be negligent. Once liability is admitted the dispute moves to how care and lost earnings should be valued.

Mixed outcome

MAN v St George's University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

[2024] EWHC 1304 (KB)·2024·Liability decided at trial

A woman went to A&E with extreme lower-leg pain and was sent home by a nurse practitioner instead of being seen by a senior doctor or referred to surgeons; she developed a necrotising soft tissue infection and lost her leg. The Trust admitted negligence but tried to rely on the nurse's evidence disputing how much pain she reported; the Master ruled that evidence inadmissible because the defence had never properly pleaded that dispute.

An NHS trust cannot admit negligence and then quietly contest the facts at trial without pleading them. Severe, out-of-proportion pain in a limb is a recognised warning sign of necrotising infection that calls for senior review.

Claimant succeeded

Phoebe Charmaine Pickering v Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

[2022] EWHC 1171 (QB)·2022·Liability decided at trial

Ms Pickering, who had atrial fibrillation, attended A&E with a cold, white leg; doctors diagnosed a resolved ischaemic event and sent her home on aspirin without heparin or a warning about her stroke risk. She had a major stroke 67 hours later, and the court found that anticoagulation would have prevented it.

A transient blockage in a limb can signal a clot from the heart, and discharging such a patient without anticoagulation or advice was admitted to be negligent. The case turned on causation, with the court accepting expert evidence that heparin would have stopped the clot progressing.

All a&e 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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