§ PUBLISHED JUDGMENT · 2019

Arksey v Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

[2019] EWHC 1276 (QB)·High Court (Queen's Bench Division)·21 March 2019

Mrs Arksey attended Addenbrooke's with a warning bleed from a brain aneurysm but was discharged without a CT scan and suffered a catastrophic re-bleed the next day. The court held she had not proved that admitting her would have avoided the re-bleed, though she succeeded on an admitted delay in fitting a shunt for hydrocephalus.

Outcome

Mixed outcome

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: Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Addenbrooke's Hospital) · this trust’s claims data

Injury: Catastrophic subarachnoid haemorrhage from a re-bleed of a cerebral aneurysm, causing cognitive impairment, mobility problems, incontinence and memory loss; hydrocephalus requiring a VP shunt

Specialty: Emergency medicine / neurosurgery · England

§ WHAT THE COURT SAID

In the judgment’s own words.

“The consequence is that there will be judgment for the claimant only for the admitted breach of duty in relation to the failure to carry out the VP shunt”

The money

Liability judgment only; no figure. Judgment for the claimant was limited to the admitted three-and-a-half-month delay in inserting a VP shunt; the principal allegation about the A&E discharge failed on causation.

§ WHY IT MATTERS

What this case shows.

Proving breach of duty in A&E is only half the battle; the claimant must also show that the correct treatment would have prevented the injury in time, which failed here for the main allegation.

About a&e negligence claims →

§ MORE A&E NEGLIGENCE JUDGMENTS

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.

Claimant succeeded

Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust

[2018] UKSC 50·2018·Appeal decision

A man with a head injury was told by an A&E receptionist he would wait four to five hours, left after 19 minutes, and collapsed at home with a brain bleed. The Supreme Court held the hospital owed him a duty not to give misleading information about waiting times and that his leaving did not break the chain of causation.

An NHS trust's duty of care in A&E starts at the reception desk, and wrong information given by non-clinical staff can found a negligence claim.

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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