Claim failed
[2026] EWCC 50·2026·Liability decided at trial
A widow brought a dependency and bereavement claim against the hospital after her husband died from an infection picked up during heart surgery. Because he had already settled his own claim in full against the equipment manufacturer while alive, the court held no Fatal Accidents Act claim survived for his dependants.
A dependant's claim under the Fatal Accidents Act only exists if the deceased could still have sued at the moment of death. Settling a claim in the patient's lifetime can extinguish the family's later dependency claim, so settlement terms need careful thought where death is foreseeable.
Claim failed
[2024] EWHC 1800 (KB)·2024·Liability decided at trial
A widower claimed that doctors at Southampton General misdiagnosed his wife's rare cerebral venous thrombosis as a stroke, gave her clot-busting drugs and delayed the correct treatment, leading to her death. The judge found the clinicians acted reasonably on the presentation and that even earlier correct treatment would probably not have saved her.
A tragic outcome after a rare condition is missed does not by itself prove negligence; the question is whether a reasonable body of doctors would have acted the same way on the information available. Causation must be proved separately.
Claim failed
[2024] UKSC 1·2024·Appeal decision
Three families sought damages for psychiatric injury after watching a relative die from a condition that doctors had negligently failed to diagnose. The Supreme Court (Lord Burrows dissenting) held that doctors do not owe relatives a duty to protect them from the shock of witnessing a patient's death or medical crisis.
Relatives who develop a psychiatric illness from witnessing a loved one's death caused by medical negligence generally cannot claim as secondary victims. Their remedies are limited to the Fatal Accidents Act dependency and bereavement claims.
Claim failed
[2013] EWHC 4088 (QB)·2013·Liability and damages decided at trial
A widower and four children claimed after Mrs Shah, who had collapsed with leg weakness days after giving birth, died from an undetected arterial tear. The court found the A&E doctor's failure to check leg pulses was not negligent and would not have changed the outcome, so the claim failed.
Fatal claims need proof both that care fell below a reasonable standard and that better care would probably have saved the patient. The judgment nonetheless shows how dependency damages for a spouse and children are built up from the deceased's earnings and services.
Claimant succeeded£1.2M
[2024] EWHC 1360 (KB)·2024·Liability decided at trial
Mr Healey died nine days after bowel cancer surgery at a private hospital when a leak at the surgical join was not recognised in time. The hospital settled the widow's claim for £1.2 million and the court ordered the surgeon to bear 75% of it, finding his failure to diagnose the leak the principal cause of death.
Post-operative deterioration after bowel surgery must prompt urgent consideration of a leak. Both the private hospital and the individual surgeon can be liable, with the court apportioning responsibility between them.
Claimant succeeded£340,000
[2023] EWHC 2986 (KB)·2023·Liability decided at trial
The Trust admitted it missed an aortic dissection that emergency surgery would probably have cured, and settled the fatal claim for £340,000. When the widow and children later sued for psychiatric injury from witnessing the death, the Trust tried to strike that out but withdrew after discovering the earlier settlement had never been court-approved.
Fatal claims involving children need court approval of any settlement or it may not bind them. A missed aortic dissection in a chest-pain patient was accepted as negligent and fatal.
Claimant succeeded
[2019] EWHC 283 (QB)·2019·Liability decided at trial
A woman with a previous pulmonary embolism saw her GP with chest pain and breathlessness and was diagnosed with a strained muscle; she died the next morning. The GP admitted he should have referred her to hospital, and Stewart J found she would on the clear balance of probabilities have survived with anticoagulation and monitoring.
Chest pain and breathlessness in someone with a past clot is a red flag needing same-day hospital referral. Where survival chances on admission would have been very high, the court will find the death was caused by the failure to refer.
Claim failed
[2006] EWCA Civ 1028·2006·Appeal decision
A five-year-old whose overnight glucose pump failed had a hypoglycaemic fit; the GP who came to the house gave suppositories rather than the intravenous glucose he was carrying, and the boy suffered fatal brain damage. The trial judge found the GP negligent but not that IV glucose would have saved him, and the Court of Appeal upheld that decision and refused to admit new evidence.
Proving a doctor was negligent is not enough; the claimant must also prove that correct treatment would have changed the outcome. The court also held that an expert's undisclosed link to the defendant's medical defence organisation did not by itself make his evidence inadmissible.
Claimant succeeded
[2015] EWHC 18 (QB)·2015·Liability and damages decided at trial
An ambulance crew attending a man in a life-threatening asthma attack gave salbutamol and oxygen but recorded no observations, did not give the further drugs the guidelines call for, and he collapsed and died as they prepared to move him. The judge found these failures negligent and that with proper treatment he would probably have survived, so the ambulance trust was liable to his family.
Ambulance staff must follow the national guidelines for life-threatening asthma, including objective observations and escalating drug treatment. Causation can be proved where proper treatment would have given a better-than-even chance of survival.