One elderly pensioner will be seeking medical negligence compensation for the serious burn injuries she suffered from what was supposed to have been a routine procedure, accident claim experts recently reported.
Joyce Hardingham, eighty three years old, had been admitted to Manchester’s Wythenshawe Hospital, in Southmoor Road, in order to replace the battery on her pace-maker, which is a routine surgical procedure. However, in the midst of the operation, upon a piece of equipment admitting an electric spark, a ‘substantial’ fire broke out when the spark ignited disinfecting fluid that had been used in order to make the work area sterile.
According to her personal injury claims, Mrs Hardingham sustained serious burns as a result of the spark. It was additionally stated that one of the attending nurses needed immediate counselling for trauma in the wake of the incident due to its severity.
Now, the University Hospital of South Manchester Trust has not only accepted liability for the incident, but has finally issued an apology to the elderly pensioner and her family, after more than 12 months have elapsed. Mrs Hardingham’s son-in-law remarked that the family had been incensed by reluctance on the hospital’s part to admit liability.
One Trust spokesperson commented that, while it had not received any formal complaints in regards to the treatment Mrs Hardingham received, practices and procedures at the hospital had been altered following an independent internal investigation of the matter. However, now that the NHS Trust has admitted liability for the incident, a medical negligence compensation claim is now in progress, according to one of Mrs Hardingham’s legal representatives.