£15,000 compensation obtained for widow of naval officer

Posted 23/03/2012

Julie Crossley, a medical injury lawyer at Ashtons Legal, has obtained a settlement of ?15,000 for a widow whose husband died following post-road accident treatment in 2008. Mr G, a naval officer in his 20s, sustained serious head injuries and other complications in an RTA and required a range of treatments including a tracheostomy. It was alleged that his death from a haemorrhage around three months after the road accident was caused by the knock-on effects of the tracheostomy being sited too low and the tube being continually moved and repositioned.Julie comments: “This case highlights an aspect of the law which many people find difficult to understand. Where an injured person is young and has no children, it is usually difficult to obtain more than very limited compensation if they die of their injuries unless their spouse is totally financially dependent on them and the deceased had good earning potential. One might think that a spouse would be given substantial compensation for the fact that she faces a lifetime without her husband; this is not the case, and the largest awards tend to be for people who survive their injuries but require full-time long-term care”.