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Reay v British Nuclear Fuels
(1994) 5 Med LR 01
Environmental pollution — Nuclear reactor — Claim against British Nuclear Fuels plc arising out of leukaemia and non — Hodgkin's lymphoma cases — Whether evidence established that cause or material contributory cause of leukaemia and lymphoma was ionising radiation emitted by activities carried on at Sellafield, Cumbria
Howard v Wessex Regional Health Authority
(1994) 5 Med LR 57
Professional liability — Maxillo — facial surgery — Tetraplegia following operation of sagittal split osteostomy — Whether application of res ipsa loquitur inappropriate — Probable and likely cause of patient's tetraplegia — Whether trauma during surgery or fibro — cartilaginous embolism
EE (a minor) (Wardship: medical treatment)
(1994) 5 Med LR 73
Consent — Medical treatment — Blood transfusion — Refusal by Jehovah's Witness ward of court
Nash v Southmead Health Authority
[1994] LS Law Med 74
Damages — Quantum — Dyskinetic athetoid cerebral palsy — Liability admitted by health authority — Disputed quantum of damages
R v South Western Hospital Managers ex parte M
(1994) 5 Med LR 80
Mental health — Detention and discharge — Duty on doctors and social workers
Best v Wellcome Foundation & Others
(1994) 5 Med LR 81
Product liability — DTP vaccine — Causation — Whether vaccine containing pertussis component could cause post-pertussis vaccinal encephalopathy (PPVE) — Whether vaccine did cause PPVE in plaintiff — Whether defendant vaccine manufacturer and/or prescribing doctor negligent — Whether plaintiff had established close temporal association between time of vaccination and onset of symptoms
Colegrove v Smyth and Others
[1994] LS Law Med 111
Limitation — Knowledge — Claim by plaintiff 30 years after alleged failure to diagnose congenital dislocation of hip — Statement in plaintiff's affidavit that she recollected being told at age eight that treatment should have been given when she was younger — Whether sufficient “knowledge” — Limitation Act 1980
Bova v Spring
(1994) 5 Med LR 120
Professional liability — Trainee general practitioner — Diagnosis — Verification — Whether signs and symptoms of pneumonia which a competent general practitioner should have spotted
Daubert v Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc
(1994) 5 Med LR 131
Evidence — Expert evidence — Requirements under US Federal Rules of Evidence
R v Canterbury & Thanet District Health Authority, ex parte F & W; South East Thames Regional Health Authority, ex p F & W
(1994) 5 Med LR 132
Judicial review — Health authorities — Complaints procedure — Duty to receive and consider complaints — Health authority's decision to abort procedure in face of legal proceedings — Whether complaints procedure inappropriate where litigation was likely — Primary purpose of procedure — Whether health authorities justified in deciding that applicant complainants should not be included in procedure — Whether health authorities” decision to abort procedure which they had set up with regard to other complainants was unreasonable — Whether regional health authority had completely divested themselves of responsibility — Exercise of court's discretion
Anderson v Blashki
(1994) 5 Med LR 142
Coroner — “Decision” — “Findings” — Witness stating at inquest that she saw nurse kick patient in private hospital — Coroner finding that patient died from congestive cardiac failure caused by hypertension, arteriosclerosis and abdominal aneurism, and that nurse had contributed to cause of death — Whether sufficient evidence to sustain finding — Meaning of “finding”, “decision” — Standard of proof -Coroners Act 1985 (Victoria)
AB and Others v John Wyeth and Another
(1994) 5 Med LR 149
Practice — Group litigation — Benzodiazepine litigation — Striking out — 5,000 claims against drug manufacturers — Alternative claims against prescribers struck out on grounds of unjustness and abuse of process — Power of court in group litigation to strike out actions -RSC Order 18, rule 19
Ter Neuzen v Korn
(1994) 5 Med LR 155
Professional liability — Artificial insemination — Negligence — Patient contracting HIV from artificial insemination in 1985 — Standard of care — Doctor conforming to common medical practice at that time — Supply of infected semen by doctor — Whether implied warranty of quality
Fletcher v Sheffield Health Authority
(1994) 5 Med LR 156
Limitation — Knowledge — Constructive knowledge — Necessity for expert medical opinion — Whether judge correctly found substantial degree of overlap between evidence on separate issues of limitations and negligence — Whether defendants were right in claiming that expert evidence relevant to limitation would fall within comparatively narrow compass — RSC Order 33 rule 3 — Limitation Act 1980
Dobbie v Medway Health Authority
[1994] LS Law Med 160
Limitation — Knowledge — Discretion — Mastectomy performed in 1973 — Action based on lack of consent and negligence commenced in 1989 — Whether plaintiff had knowledge within three-year period that her injury was significant and capable of being attributable to defendants” fault — Whether it would have been reasonable for plaintiff to have sought advice prior to May 1986 — Whether court should exercise its discretion in plaintiff's favour
Sion v Hampstead Health Authority
(1994) 5 Med LR 170
Practice — Striking out — Medical negligence action alleging nervous shock — Whether health authority required to show that plaintiff's claim was obviously doomed to fail — Whether court had discretion to allow amendment to statement of claim which failed to disclose cause of action after limitation period had expired — Whether plaintiff's medical report conclusive
Clarke v Hurst and Others
(1994) 5 Med LR 177
Medical treatment — Persistent vegetative state — “Living will” made by patient — Withdrawal of artificial feeding — Court's power to make declaration that removal of artificial feeding would not be unlawful — South Africa
Tredget and Tredget v Bexley Health Authority
(1994) 5 Med LR 178
Damages — Psychiatric illness — Medical Negligence — Death of neonate resulting from medical negligence — Parents of child suffering psychiatric illness — Whether causative factor was shock or grief
Laferriere v Lawson
(1994) 5 Med LR 185
Causation — Loss of chance — Quebec Civil law — Doctor negligent in failing to inform patient of cancerous condition — Whether loss of chance compensable
Ritchie v Chichester Health Authority
(1994) 5 Med LR 187
Professional liability — Obstetrics — Epidural — Mother in labour undergoing epidural — Severe pain experienced in legs and bottom — Patient suffering total permanent paralysis in the saddle area, double incontinence and loss of vaginal sensation — Allegation by patient that her injuries were caused by injection of toxic substance — Contention by defendants that cause was either fibrocartilaginous embolus which occluded anterior spinal artery and blocked blood supply to conus medullaris or sudden and spontaneous interruption of blood supply to lower end of spinal cord or cauda equina — Whether penetration of dura had been established
Ciarlariello v Schacter
(1994) 5 Med LR 213
Consent — Neurosurgery — Angiogram stopped at patient's request — Whether explanation of risks required to be repeated before test resumed
Early v Newham Health Authority
(1994) 5 Med LR 214
Professional liability — Anaesthetist — Unsuccessful intubation — Procedure — Alleged incompetence of anaesthetist — Whether health authority failed to lay down a proper procedure for dealing with this event
R v HM Coroner for N Humberside and Scunthorpe ex p Jamieson
(1994) 5 Med LR 217
Coroner's inquest — Verdict — “lack of care” — Prison inmate taking own life — Whether coroner erred in directing jury not to return verdict in which words “lack of care” formed part
Smith v Glennon
(1994) 5 Med LR 218
Damages — Personal injuries — Interim payment — Whether judge had jurisdiction to award interim payment — Discretion to refer to registrar — Whether interim payment of £160,000 excessive where plaintiff, who resided in United States, likely to recover £240,000 — Difficulty in recovering any overpayment
Baig v City & Hackney Health Authority
[1994] LS Law Med 221
Limitation — Knowledge — Discretion — Whether sufficiently firm conviction constituted “knowledge” — Operation which patient had been assured was virtually certain of success proving a disaster — Patient an educated, professional man — Whether patient put on inquiry — First medical reports unfavourable to patient's case — Whether unreasonable for patient not to seek advice earlier — Considerable and, largely unexplained, delay — Whether defendants would be prejudiced — Defendants” insurance arrangements changed
Fish v Wilcox
(1994) 5 Med LR 230
Damages — Parent — Disabled child — Loss of earnings where parent provides nursing services
R v Secretary of State for Health ex Parte Barratt
(1994) 5 Med LR 235
Medical treatment — Complaint — Procedure — Rights of parent to initiate proceedings on behalf of child without consent of child — Effect of child attaining majority
Chapman v Rix
(1994) 5 Med LR 239
Professional liability — General practitioner — Communication — Opinion that accidental knife wound to abdomen was superficial — Doctor having in mind minute possibility of penetration and necessity for patient to be kept under observation — Failure to communicate directly with patient's own doctor — Failure to warn of possibility that wound had penetrated abdominal cavity — Whether doctor should have foreseen that patient's doctor might be misled
De Koning v Cheb Management Pty Ltd
(1994) 5 Med LR 250
Professional liability — Nurse — Duty to warn — Propensity of patient
Kidd v Grampian Health Board
(1994) 5 Med LR 251
Limitation of action — Extension of time — Discretion of court — Patient claiming damages in respect of alleged negligent treatment administered 16 years before action raised — No evidence that defenders prejudiced by delay — Whether equitable to permit action to proceed — Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973, section 19A
James v Camberwell Health Authority
(1994) 5 Med LR 253
Professional liability — Gynaecology — “Trial of scar” — Whether labour should have been conducted and monitored with particular care and midwife should have been in constant attendance throughout — Whether defendant negligent in failing to observe prolonged severe foetal bradycardia
Ealing Hammersmith and Hounslow Family Health Services Authority v Shukla
(1994) 5 Med LR 258
General practitioner — Employment — Sexual discrimination — Doctor applying for vacancy in medical practice — Whether “employment” — Whether statutory procedure for filling vacancy “arrangements” made by family health services authority
Parry v North West Surrey Health Authority
(1994) 5 Med LR 259
Professional liability — Obstetrician — High head baby — Acting registrar's attempt to deliver by forceps — Baby suffering cerebral palsy — Whether registrar had failed to examine mother of baby — Whether caesarean section should have been performed earlier — Whether any negligence caused cerebral palsy — Professional liability — Midwife — Examinations of patient in labour — Whether abdominal palpations omitted — Whether any negligence caused baby's cerebral palsy
Landall v Dennis Faulkner & Alsop (a firm) & Alsop
(1994) 5 Med LR 268
Pleadings — Striking out — Reasonable cause of action — Abuse of process — Personal injury action compromised in reliance on medical report — Action in negligence against solicitors, counsel and medical expert alleging negligent advice — Whether pleadings should be struck out as disclosing no cause of action or frivolous, vexatious and abuse of process — RSC Order 18, rule 19. — Professional liability — Consultant surgeon — Medical report by orthopaedic surgeon opining that spinal fusion operation would relieve plaintiff's pain — Compromise of personal injury action in reliance on report — Whether surgeon could be sued in negligence. — Professional liability — Barrister — Medical report by orthopaedic surgeon — Court door compromise of personal injury action in reliance on report — Whether barrister could be sued in negligence — Whether pleadings should have been amended. — Professional liability — Solicitor — Compromise of personal injury action in reliance on expert medical report — Whether solicitor could be sued in negligence
R v Adomako
(1994) 5 Med LR 277
Negligence — Criminal law — Involuntary manslaughter — Anaesthetist's duty of care — Failure by anaesthetist to recognize total disconnection of anaesthetized patient from ventilator — Death of patient due to hypoxia — Anaesthetist indicted on, inter alia, count of manslaughter — Directions to jury
Smith v Barking, Havering and Brentwood Health Authority
(1994) 5 Med LR 285
Causation — Consent — Failure to warn — Second operation (hydromyelia) possibly resulting in significant benefit or significant deprivation but not imperative for preserving patient's life — Patient suffering tetraplegia nine months earlier as result of operation — Surgeon failing to warn — Whether plaintiff would have had operation in any event — Whether objective or subjective test applicable — Factors for consideration
Mountenay (Hazzard) and Others v Bernard Matthews PLC
(1994) 5 Med LR 293
Occupational health - Personal Injury - Employer's liability -Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) - Medical controversy as to whether RSI exists as a non-specific diffuse condition - Medical issue of sensitization - Duty of employee to take reasonable steps to prevent or reduce the incidence of teno-synovitis - Whether breach of that duty sufficient to render employer liable in respect of pain going beyond the aches and pains of a stressful job but falling short of a recognised clinical condition - Duty of employer to warn employees and prospective employees of risk of injury - Duty of employer to educate employees and prospective employees in order that they may make an informed choice as to whether to undertake work that involves a risk - Duty to educate employees in order that they should bring symptoms to the attention of nurses and doctors at the first opportunity - Duty to rotate employees engaged in work involving risk of injury - Duty of employer to introduce employees gently into work involving risk of injury - Breach of duty - Causation
Smith v Salford Health Authority
(1994) 5 Med LR 321
Professional liability — Neurosurgery — Occipital/cervical fusion — Plaintiff's condition congenital — Plaintiff rendered tetraplegic — Whether decision to proceed to operation was a precipitate one — Whether surgeon failed properly to inform plaintiff of benefits of both surgical and non-surgical management — Whether a CT scan should have been taken before operation — Whether operation carried out negligently
In re AB (a minor) (Medical issues: expert evidence)
(1994) 5 Med LR 333
Expert witness — Duty to court — Child abuse cases — Medical evidence pointing overwhelmingly to non-accidental injury — Advancement of hypothetical innocent explanation of injuries
Smith v Tunbridge Wells Health Authority
(1994) 5 Med LR 334
Consent — Informed consent — Wells operation — Patient a young sexually active married man suffering from rectal prolapse — Whether surgeon under duty to warn patient of possibility of impotence and incontinence — Whether surgeon failed to discharge duty — Whether responsible body of medical opinion, including that of surgeon himself, regarded it as incumbent upon a surgeon to explain the particular risks to patient such as this plaintiff — Causation
McAllister v Lewisham and N Southwark Health Authority and others
(1994) 5 Med LR 343
Professional liability — Neurosurgery — Informed consent — Bolam test — Risk involved in surgery to correct arteriovascular malformation (avm) — 10 per cent likelihood of risk occurring — Whether warnings by surgeon were adequate — Whether plaintiff should have been provided with information to enable her consent to be effective — Whether plaintiff had succeeded in establishing causal connection
Walker v Huntingdon Health Authority
(1994) 5 Med LR 356
Causation — Sports injury — Damage to popliteal nerve — Negligent diagnosis in casualty — Whether plaintiff had proved that he had suffered injury thereafter — Whether injury attributable to negligent diagnosis
Hart v Chappel
(1994) 5 Med LR 365
Professional liability — Ear, nose and throat — Consent — Failure to warn — Patient presenting with chronic sore throat — Pharyngeal diverticular and associated narrowing of adjacent oesophagus — Endoscopic division of pharyngial pouch — Perforated oesophagus or pharynx — Mediastinitis following operation — Damage to patient's recurrent right laryngeal nerve — Causation — Loss of opportunity
Rohatgi v Medical Tribunal of New South Wales
(1994) 5 Med LR 382
Professional misconduct — Review — Practitioner found guilty of professional misconduct by medical tribunal but successful in subsequent criminal proceedings — Tribunal's decision not to review case — Application for certiorari and mandamus
Queen v Mid Glamorgan Family Health Services Authority ex parte Martin
(1994) 5 Med LR 383
Judicial review — Mental health — Medical records — Whether unconditional right of access at common law to medical records — Refusal by health authority to grant patient access — Conditional access offered by family health service authority and health authority to patient's medical advisers — Legal ownership of medical records
R v Roussel Laboratories
(1994) 5 Med LR 400
Medicinal product — False and misleading advertisement — Surgam — Advertisement that Surgam operated by selective prostaglandin inhibition (SPI) — Manufacturer convicted of issuing false and misleading advertisement relating to medicinal product under Medicines Act 1968 section 93 — Officer convicted of consenting and conniving — Whether judge failed to direct jury that “quality” meant commercial quality or grade and wrongly directed jury that “quality” could mean its character, characteristics or an attribute -Whether section 93 based on Food and Drugs Act — Whether it was for jury to decide whether SPI was an effect
Headford v Bristol and District Health Authority
[1994] LS Law Med 406
Limitation — Disability — Abuse of process — Court's inherent jurisdiction — Delay of 28 years before initiation of proceedings — Plaintiff throughout under disability — Unreasonable delay due to failure to act by those caring for plaintiff — Defendant prejudiced by unavailability of evidence, change in medical practice and change in insurance arrangements — Effect of res ipsa loquitur plea by plaintiff
Birkett v Director General Of Family and Community Services
(1994) 5 Med LR 411
Medical treatment — Consent — Necessity — Infant — Blood transfusion — Consent of parent withheld — Professional liability — Paediatrician — Blood transfusion — Treatment of child in urgent necessity — Care and protection by the State
Ratty v Haringey HA
(1994) 5 Med LR 413
Professional liability — Colo-rectal surgery — Duty of care — Diagnosis of cancer of bowel at recto-sigmoid junction — Admittance to hospital for anastomosis — Decision at operation to perform abdomino-perineal resection — Whether decision to undertake major surgery without histological proof of cancer negligent — Whether failure to correct hole in bladder and severed ureters was negligent
Fairhurst v St Helens & Knowsley Health Authority
[1994] LS Law Med 422
Causation — Brain damage — Kernicterus — Rhesus incompatibility with plaintiff's mother known before birth — Neonatal jaundice noted at early stage after birth — Admittedly negligent delay in exchange transfusion — Plaintiff suffering brain damage — Causation admitted of two of the four essential elements of plaintiff's disability, choreoathetosis and deafness — Whether all plaintiff's brain damage caused by kernicterus — Quantum of damages
Gowton and Anor v Wolverhampton Health Authority
(1994) 5 Med LR 432
Professional liability — Sterilisation — Vasectomy — Whether no clear warning of risk of late reversal given by surgeon — Whether surgeon negligent — Causation — Measure of general damages
Gascoine v Ian Sheridan & Co and Latham
[1994] LS Law Med 437
Professional liability — Solicitor and barrister — Negligence — Limitation — Causation — Patient consulting gynaecologist following abnormal smear test — Diagnosis of severe dysplasia or carcinoma in situ — Vaginal hysterectomy — No indication of invasive malignancy — Histological report of infiltrating squamous carcinoma invading cervix to depth of 2mm — Radiotherapist prescribing external pelvic irradiation — Conditions attributable to radiotherapy necessitating an ileostomy — Plaintiff's subsequent medical negligence action struck out for want of prosecution — Whether plaintiff's claim against her solicitors and barrister barred under Limitation Act 1980 — Whether plaintiff's action would have inevitably failed because negligence by health authority could not have been established