A widow has claimed for medical negligence against a private ambulance crew who failed to spot or act on her husband’s heart attack. The alleged negligence occurred, even after one of the junior team members had expressed concern over the man’s condition. The attack eventually led to the man’s death but could have been helped had concerns been acted on.
“Serious failings in care”
Back in February, Mr Gary Page suffered a heart attack in his home. He struggling on his hands and knees in pain, as he called 111 and following his call he was taken to hospital by the Ambulance Trust, with paramedics on board.
When they arrived the lead paramedic dismissed his pains as possible heartburn or a pulled muscle, despite one of the junior team members suggesting he could have been suffering something more serious.
The crew left and only hours later Mr Page died at home. The East of England Ambulance Trust has since apologised and stated that the lead medic was ‘complacent” in his duty.
A coroner has since said there were “serious failings” in the care, or lack of, at Mr Page’s side and in lacking that care, the ambulance crew have been deemed to have acted negligently. This played a very large role in the preventable death of Mr Page.
Duty of care
Ambulance crews, paramedics, doctors, nurses, GPs or any other medical professional owe every single patient a duty of care to do their absolute best to treat injury, illness or prevent death.
If a concern is raised or the probability of a serious problem is present (even a small probability), it is in the patient’s best interest to take action. At the very least they should conduct am examination of the patient to establish what the problem is (something the ambulance crew failed to do).
For anybody who has experienced a failing in their treatment by any form of medical professional, it is advisable to make a claim and help bring the wrongdoing to the eye of those in charge of that professional. Instances of negligence can highlight issues with staff training, staff workloads and the organisation’s procedures. If any of these do not meet the standards they can have serious, even fatal influences on a person’s life.
Aftercare
Following a case of medical negligence, personal injury solicitors such as ourselves will attempt to plan and provide an action plan to assist with recovery or limit any damage caused. Medical negligence can be a very serious injury risk given the injuries being health related. Common medical negligence cases we take on include:
- Carer negligence
- Surgical mistakes
- Misdiagnosis
- Wrongly prescribed medication
If the injury is particularly serious we can help arrange for expert medical help to either correct or rehabilitate the initial injury. We can also provide any required physiotherapy and financial planning if the injury affects the sufferer for a long time.
If you have been the victim of medical negligence (or your friends and family have) then you are entitled to seek legal assistance to put right the wrong. We have been committed for over 25 years to providing expert legal care and assistance to those who have been injured down to negligence. We have a caring, dedicated team alongside a network of experts able to help plan and execute any required rehabilitation and recovery following injury.
We offer a ‘no win no fee’ package which ensures there is no risk in taking out a claim. We will ensure that if your claim is unsuccessful, you won’t pay us a penny. We do, however, pride ourselves on our success rate and battle to get you the compensation you deserve.
If you’d like to talk to one of our expert team, you can call us on 01695 722 222 (lines are open weekdays from 9am to 7pm) or you can get started right away by filling in our online claim form. With no risk in starting a claim today, get in touch and see what we can do for you.