After suffering injuries whilst attempting to move an elderly patient, one ambulance technician has made a £60,000 work accident claim against his employers, personal injury compensation experts recently reported.
Paul De Lara, a fifty seven year old Scottish Ambulance Service veteran, missed eight months of work due to a serious ankle injury he sustained as a result of the elderly patient’s stairlift, according to his accident claim. Mr DeLara’s claim is not the only one to be brought against the ambulance service as of late, as another employee, Lynn Sutherland, a paramedic with the company, recently made a £100,000 claim after she was the victim of a violent attack from a teenage patient.
The circumstances surrounding Mr De Lara’s injury occurred after responding to an elderly patient in distress at his home. Upon attempting to move the victim to hospital for treatment, the stairlift on the patient’s stairway proved a significant obstacle, resulting in Mr De Lara and a colleague to become stuck half-way down the stairway with the patient.
A second crew from the ambulance service was called to the scene in order to assist, bringing a special chair to transport the elderly patient. Mr De Lara, who had never received any training in using the chair, was needed to lift it over the stairlift, with the claimant said ‘went heavily’ over his ankle, resulting in a ruptured ligament in his foot and requiring a recovery routine of 53 phisiotherapy treatments, steroids, and anti-inflammatory injections.
Mr De Lara claims that his long recovery left him suffering lost wages but also with an inability to enjoy many of his hobbies, such as going to the gym, walking, and running. However, the claimant’s employers have decided to contest his compensation case, contending that he knew to both call for assistance if the situation required it and that he was also given risk assessment training as well.