Cases:
Clinical Negligence

Martin Leach spent 2 months pursuing a complaint against the Queen’s Medical Centre after his mother died in August 2001. He instructed Barratts to represent the family after the Coroner was persuaded to hold an Inquest into the death of Mrs Leach.

Mrs Leach had been admitted to the Queen’s Medical Centre in July 2001 with Crohn’s Disease, suffering from malnutrition and dehydration. It was recommended that she receive a litre of intravenous fluids over 10 hours but tragically the infusion pump was incorrectly set. Fluids were administered in less than 1 hour and this overload caused Mrs Leach to suffer heart failure, significantly contributing to her death 2 days later. The original post mortem examination concluded that Mrs Leach died from natural causes but the Coroner, Dr Nigel Chapman, overruled the original verdict and recorded a verdict of accidental death.

There had been previous instances around the country of staff error with lack of training for medical equipment. Prior to the Coroner’s Inquest Mr Leach had pursued an independent review to ensure changes were made nationally. As a result significant changes were made at the QMC including new software to minimise the risk of using incorrect infusion rates, training and standardisation of infusion devices.