After being the recipient of injuries that have been called “catastrophic,” a man has been awarded High Court damages of almost £14 million in a medical negligence claim related to a kidney donation to his father.
Sitting in London, Mr Justice Spencer was told that the 38 year old – identified only in High Court documents as XYZ – lodged a personal injury claim after a February 2008 transplant operation.
During the removal of the man’s right kidney, his left kidney suffered an irreversible failure. As a result XYZ then was in need of an immediate transplant himself, which he was lucky enough to receive from his sister. Elizabeth-Anne Gumbel QC told the High Court that XYZ paid a dear price for coming to the aid of his father.
The Trustees for Portsmouth Hospitals NHS admitted liability in the personal injury compensation case based on the determination that the surgeon who conducted the procedure was reckless in addition to negligent. The surgeon is also to be subjected to General Medical Council proceedings for his actions.
Concerned with compensation assessment matters, the four-day-long hearing is due to the Trust’s disputation of a portion of the injured party’s claims, especially those in regards to his medical expenses and future projected earnings losses. Compensation for both amounts are considered to be potentially substantial.
Ms Gumbel stated that in order to give his father a higher quality of life for his retirement, XYZ was motivated to make kidney dialysis treatment for his father unnecessary. While this kidney donation was achieved with success, she added, the claimant did it at great cost to himself due to the life-threatening, torrential haemorrhaging that occurred throughout the course of the surgical procedure.
Ms Gumbel also added that the life of XYZ has been truncated by approximately 10 years as a result. Additionally the man now faces another transplant sometime in the inevitable future, considerable problems to his health, and also has experienced the traumatic nature of undergoing dialysis himself as well.