Shocking events that should never have happened during medical treatment…

Shocking events that should never have happened during medical treatment…

This year we have seen a reported increase in “Never Events” in the NHS. These are events that should never happen due to prevention guidelines and protocols, which are applied in all NHS Trusts.

Leaving surgical items within a patient is classified as wholly unacceptable, but sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes patients are left needing further painful surgeries to rectify mistakes. Or even worse, they have been left with severe lifelong disabilities, side effects, or injuries.

What are some examples of Never Events?

A woman was left in excruciating pain after a wire was left covering her lungs

Our client, who had surgery on her chest, awoke in excruciating pain. Five days later, she was told that a wire had been left inside of her pleural cavity (a thin layer of tissue that covers the lungs) which was used to guide a drain into position.

She required further, unnecessary surgery to remove the guide wire, which, fortunately, was successful with no long-lasting internal or external damage. Nevertheless, this was an extremely distressing incident.

A woman suffers immense pain due to being in the same dressing for 6 days

Our client had a dressing left in place for 6 days without being reviewed where the protocol is for the dressing to be changed either on the day of the surgery or, at the latest, the following day.

This caused our client an immense amount of unnecessary and avoidable pain, as well as a prolonged period of recovery and psychological distress.;

A man ends up in intensive care after complication with air being injected into his vein

Our client suffered a traumatic experience when a contrast dye was injected into their arm via a cannula (plastic tube inserted into a vein). Once the injection was administered, our client was advised of a complication and several medical staff rushed to the treatment room.

A considerable amount of air had entered his bloodstream and into the right ventricle of his heart. He received emergency surgery to remove the air and was then admitted to intensive care for monitoring.

Thankfully, the error was identified and treated swiftly with minimal lasting effects, but the additional surgery could have been avoided and caused significant distress.

The NHS appreciates that such incidents should never occur. Therefore, liability is often admitted at an early stage in our client’s cases, which helps us reach a satisfactory settlement in the shortest time possible.

If you think you or a loved one have been a victim of a Never Event, or any other type of medical negligence, our compassionate and sensitive Medical Negligence experts who have a wealth of experience are here to help. Please get in touch for a free no-obligation consultation with us by calling 01752 648886 or emailing clientservices@wolferstans.com.

    Get in touch to discuss how we can help you.





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