Daughter fights for justice for mother negligently given
all-clear on smear test and awarded £700,000.
Linda died at the age of 52 on 5 December 2006 from cervical
cancer. She was married and had two children and had worked as a
Deputy Head Teacher in a local school.
Before she died Linda pursued a formal complaint against the
hospital run by Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust and asked her
daughter, Roxanne, to pursue a legal claim in the event of her
death. Samantha Critchley acted for the
family.
Experts instructed by Samantha advised that in April 1999 a
cervical smear was negligently reported as being negative, and in
April 2003, when the cervical cancer was
finally diagnosed, the hospital failed to remove all of the
abnormal cells. The Hospital strongly denied that the smear showed
any abnormalities in 1999.
The Hospital admitted that the care given in 2003 was
unacceptable but denied that any treatment at this time would have
saved Linda’s life.
The case was fixed for trial in December 2011.
Astonishingly, just a matter of days before the cytology experts
on both sides were due to meet to examine the smear slide under a
double-headed microscope, the Defendant advised that the crucial
1999 slide had been lost. This was very serious and it meant that
the expert discussion could not proceed.
The Oncology experts meeting did proceed and the Defendant’s
expert accepted that had the cancer been treated appropriately,
even in 2003, then Linda would have been cured.
A negotiation meeting went ahead in September 2011.
The Defendant’s starting offer in May 2010 had been £20,000. We
secured a settlement of £700,000. After the case Linda’s daughter
said of Samantha:
“I genuinely cannot thank you enough for your work and
guidance over the last few years. A claim like this will always be
a stressful experience due to the memories and regrets it provokes
but you always dealt with it so respectfully and I actually found
going through this process helped with my own personal
grieving”.
For further information or if you have a medical negligence claim please
call Samantha
Critchley on 020 7861 4263 or email samantha.critchley@ffw.com
You can discuss your medical negligence
claim with any member of our
medical negligence team on
freephone 0800 358 3848, email personalinjury@ffw.com or
complete our short enquiry
form.