Brain damage due to medical negligence
January 13, 2011
Posted by:Jo Chapman
A 25-year-old woman who was severely brain damaged because doctors did not refer her to hospital quickly enough has won her claim for medical negligence compensation.
Morwenna Ganz, who lives in Teddington, was an otherwise healthy 14-year-old when she fell ill in December 1999 with bacterial pneumonia. By the time she was finally sent to the city’s Kingston Hospital her condition had deteriorated and she went into a coma. Ms Ganz’s intellect was preserved but she was left unable to speak. She now communicates in three languages through signing systems and computers. She also must use a wheelchair and needs round-the-clock care.
The judge said that had suitable treatment been given in time, this “catastrophic result” would have been avoided. Ms Ganz alleges that her GP, Amanda Childs, and John Lloyd, a full-time NHS GP, who was a director of an out-of-hours service called Harmoni, were negligent in not arranging for her earlier admission.
The judge ruled that once the question of pneumonia raised itself in Dr Childs’s mind, as it plainly did, it was incumbent on her to arrange for the urgent admission of a teenager who had by then been ill for several days. He concluded that had Ms Ganz been sent to hospital earlier and received competent care, the circumstances leading to her irreversible brain damage would have been avoided or at least reduced so that it did not occur.
The amount of the award will be assessed at a further hearing following a possible appeal by Dr Childs and Dr Lloyd against the judgment.