§ 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

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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