§ PUBLISHED JUDGMENT · 2016

Jaciubek v Gulati & Anor

[2016] EWHC 269 (QB)·High Court (Queen's Bench Division)·16 February 2016

A woman saw her GP and then attended the Royal Free A&E with severe headaches in June and July 2010, was not investigated for a bleed, and suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage days later while abroad. The judge accepted that earlier small bleeds did not present with typical warning signs and found no breach by the GP, A&E doctor or triage nurse.

Outcome

Claim failed

Sum stated in judgment

Not stated

Claim type

A&E Negligence

Decided

Liability decided at trial

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§ WHAT HAPPENED

The facts, in brief.

Defendant: Dr Rajeev Gulati and Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

Injury: Subarachnoid haemorrhage requiring coiling and drainage

Specialty: Emergency medicine / neurosurgery · England

§ WHAT THE COURT SAID

In the judgment’s own words.

“However, the law requires her to establish her case and I am afraid that, for the reasons I have given, she has not done so.”

§ WHY IT MATTERS

What this case shows.

Headache claims against A&E succeed only if the presentation should have prompted a scan or lumbar puncture; atypical symptoms without red flags can make it very hard to prove negligence.

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.

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.

Claim failed

Watson v Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

[2022] EWHC 148 (QB)·2022·Liability decided at trial

A 29-year-old with sudden facial droop, speech problems and arm weakness was told by a junior A&E doctor she had migraine and was not referred to the TIA clinic, which the Trust admitted was a breach. Ritchie J found her March symptoms were in fact hemiplegic migraine, not mini-strokes, so the missed referral did not cause her later stroke.

Admitted breach of duty is not enough; the claimant must prove the correct pathway would have prevented the injury. Detailed findings about the exact sequence of symptoms decided this case.

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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