Case Study
Ann, a 40 year old wife and mother, presented to the Health Services in excess of fourteen times, including five in-patient stays between June and December 2008, complaining of abdominal pain. As a consequence of abdominal related sepsis, Ann miscarried in July 2008, developed post-operative complications following subsequent surgery and died of multi organ failure secondary to sepsis.
In January 2009, we were consulted by Ann’s heartbroken family to advise on the case. On investigating the hospital records it was found that Ann had been suffering from acute appendicitis which had gone undetected and untreated despite the fact that she had attended three different hospitals complaining of symptoms. By the time her condition was discovered it was too late.
We advised her family to bring High Court proceedings against the HSE. Presented with the facts of this appalling case and faced with relentless pressure from this office the HSE ultimately accepted responsibility and paid substantial compensation a little over a year after we had commenced the case against them.
As part of our role, we also represented the family at the inquest into Ann’s death at which a verdict of medical misadventure was returned and, in addition, we prosecuted a formal complaint to the Medical Council against the doctor concerned.
