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We have successfully concluded a medical negligence claim for one of our clients.  This client has agreed that we can use her file as a case study for marketing purposes.

The facts were as follows:-

The claim proceeded against a care home, where the Claimant’s mother had been admitted for respite care. Sadly, she subsequently passed away, meaning the claim was brought by her daughter on behalf of the deceased’s estate.

Despite the care home being aware that she was at high risk of falls and was unable to stand without assistance, she suffered a fall whilst in their care, which they failed to inform our client about.

The care home stated that they did not inform our client of the fall because they wrongly assumed that her mother was uninjured.

When our client went to pick up her mother to take her home, she noticed some bruising and that she was also limping and struggling to weight bear. Our client contacted their GP and x-rays were arranged, which identified that she had fractured her left hip. She was taken to hospital to undergo surgery, which involved three pins being inserted into her hip. She was discharged from hospital and recovered at home.

A letter of complaint was sent to the Defendant. In their response they stated that the fall had been witnessed by a staff member who was responding to an issue in another resident’s room at that time. However, the Defendant did not disclose any relevant records including no accident or incident report or falls assessment.

The claim was protracted as we had difficulty obtaining care home records. We had to apply to the Court for pre-action disclosure of the records due to delays in them being voluntarily disclosed. After protracted correspondence with the different legal representatives of the possible care homeowners, we were eventually informed that the records relating to the respite care could not be located.

Despite not having relevant records from the care home, we were still able to obtain expert evidence in respect of nursing, geriatric medicine, and orthopaedics.

To protect our client’s position, proceedings were issued against the owners of the care home. We alleged that the care and management offered by the Defendant was negligent.

We successfully secured compensation for the deceased’s estate after entering into settlement negotiations with the Defendant’s solicitors.