Published judgments of the courts of England and Wales, linked to their source. Summaries are ours; amounts appear only where the judgment states them.
Claimant succeeded
[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.
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.
Claimant succeeded
[2026] EWHC 1574 (KB)·2026·Liability and damages decided at trial
A 37-year-old alcohol-dependent man admitted for a facial abscess was not given the prophylactic vitamin B1 (Pabrinex) that guidelines required during withdrawal, which the Trust admitted was a breach. The judge found this caused Wernicke's encephalopathy and a lasting functional disorder, and set the main heads of damages including a 24-hour care regime.
Breach was admitted, so the case turned on proving the brain injury was caused by the omission rather than by pre-existing conditions. It illustrates how catastrophic-injury awards are built from a care multiplicand, case management and accommodation rather than a single headline figure.
Claimant succeeded£550,000
[2026] EWHC 1284 (KB)·2026·Liability decided at trial
A patient developed life-threatening pancreatitis after a gallstone-removal ERCP. The judge found the consultant never prescribed or instructed the standard preventive diclofenac suppository, so it was not given, and entered judgment for £550,000 against him.
Failing to give a recognised prophylactic drug before a procedure can be negligent even in private care. The prescribing doctor, not the hospital, carried the liability here.
Claimant succeeded
[2026] EWCC 26·2026·Liability decided at trial
A theatre nurse with worsening palpitations saw a hospital physician who admittedly failed to arrange 24-hour ECG monitoring. The judge found monitoring would have caught her atrial fibrillation in time for anticoagulants to prevent the stroke she suffered.
Palpitations that keep coming back need proper heart-rhythm monitoring. Where a missed test would have led to blood-thinning treatment, a later stroke can be laid at the hospital's door.
Claim failed
[2026] EWHC 704 (KB)·2026·Liability decided at trial
During long spinal surgery for scoliosis and chest wall deformity the claimant deteriorated, arrested while being turned over, and was left with severe sight loss. He alleged the anaesthetist negligently failed to treat a raised potassium reading, but the judge found that reading was spurious and the arrest was caused by a pulmonary embolism, so the claim failed.
Even after a devastating complication a claim fails if the court finds the true cause was a non-negligent event, so proving the mechanism of injury is often the decisive issue.