Lucy's Story
Lucy, at the time of her accident, was a community nurse employed by her local Primary Care Trust. Her job involved her visiting house bound patients in the community, a job she had been doing for a number of years.
On the day of the accident she was asked to visit a severely disabled woman suffering from multiple sclerosis. She had not met the patient before but agreed to undertake this visit as a favour to her colleague.
On arrival, it was clear that the patient was entirely immobile and Lucy was required to attach the patient to a hoist and transfer her to the toilet and bathroom and thereafter back to bed. Unfortunately the layout and logistics of the room were very difficult to undertake this manoeuvre effectively. Whilst rolling the patient over on her (double) bed, in order to place her into the sling, the patient’s bed suddenly moved and Lucy suffered serious injury to her back in holding on to the patient so as not to allow her to fall.
Documents which we obtained from Lucy’s employers showed that this was – and always should have been – a two person lift. However, for staffing reasons, this policy had never been implemented and Lucy’s colleague from whom she took over on this day had always worked alone. Had Lucy been working with a colleague, the job of rolling the patient over in bed would have been much easier and the accident in all probability would not have happened.
The Trust defended the claim arguing that for many years this had been a one person job and nobody had ever been injured before. They suggested that Lucy herself was responsible for the accident in firstly not checking the security of the bed, and secondly wearing inappropriate footwear. Both these suggestions in Lucy’s view were untrue. As the matter approached Trial the Defendants accepted responsibility and compensation was discussed. We were able to persuade the Defendants that as a result of the injuries sustained Lucy would never go back to nursing and would be severely limited in the employment she could pursue. On this basis agreement was reached to pay Lucy a very considerable award of damages to reflect both the injuries and the consequence of the injuries on the rest of her life.
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