Parents sue NHS trust after teenager’s death

Posted 17/06/2010

The parents of an otherwise healthy teenager who died of an infection are suing an NHS trust for clinical negligence.

Laura Garner, 18, was admitted to Bradford Royal Infirmary in September last year after suffering from severe abdominal pain following a fall.

Doctors believed she had either a water infection or appendicitis and kept her in for observation and treatment.

However, she died just over 24 hours later from septicaemia and a severe infection in her kidney.

A subsequent investigation found that Ms Garner had not been given the antibiotics recommended for her after an initial examination and that she had not been sufficiently monitored during the night.

Her parents Steve and Anne Garner are suing Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for what they perceive to be serious failings in their daughter’s care.

Septicaemia is the presence of bacteria in the blood. If it is not treated quickly, the infected blood can spread to vital organs like the kidneys, which can be fatal as was the case here.

Anyone affected by such an incident may wish to seek the advice of a clinical negligence solicitor, as they may be able to claim compensation.

Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp, head of the Ashtons Legal medical injury team, comments: “Cases involving the death of children and young people are always particularly heartbreaking for all concerned. They can also be problematic if they involve, as here, overwhelming infection.

This is because in order to pursue a successful claim, it is necessary to prove breach of duty and that breach has caused the death, rather than the infection itself, and overwhelming infection is difficult to reverse even if antibiotics are given intravenously.

You can therefore have a situation in which there has been negligence but sadly it made no difference. I say sadly because the family understandably finds this very difficult to accept. It is also a good example of a type of case where our archaic and outmoded system of compensation for fatal claims allows only a modest award which, to many parents, is inexplicable and adds the final insult to injury.”