It’s very common these days for people to go on holiday to get away from it all and take a nice break. What most people don’t expect is for their holiday to turn into a nightmare! If you have had an accident whilst on holiday, that wasn’t your fault, you may wish to think about placing a claim.

A lot of people might not consider the possibilities of placing a claim and sometimes the claims can be a little trickier than normal due to the different law’s that are in place in other countries. However, if you have been on holiday as part of a package deal, it may in fact be easier than you think. For example, if you have had an accident in your hotel or apartment such as slipping on a wet floor or injuring yourself on an unsafe object where no warning signs were in place to alert you of the dangers then the claim would be placed against the package provider.
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According to a latest report from the BBC (source) the recent National Patient Safety Agency figures indicate that women are not being checked for pregnancy before ongoing surgery. The figures reported show that there have been 42 serious incidents between 2003 and 2009 as a result of surgery on a patient where the surgeons were unaware that the patient was pregnant. Three of these reported incidents sadly culminated in miscarriage. 

Under national guidelines, medical practitioners must always check with the patient whether there is a chance that she may be pregnant before she undergoes surgery, and particularly if that surgery is to the abdomen or the pelvis.

Surgery in the early stages of pregnancy is very risky to the developing foetus and therefore it is vitally important that the surgeon is aware of any early pregnancy. If the surgeon is aware of the patient’s pregnancy then they may be able to make some changes to their plans to limit any risks to the patient or the foetus. The surgery may be delayed or they may be able to change the type of procedure or the anesthetic used to make the surgery less risky.
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A mistake made by The Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham has the cost the life of an innocent lady when they told Jane, 30, that she was “suffering from a migraine”. Jane Harrop was admitted to hospital after suffering very badly from severe head and neck pains; two days later Jane died of a rare brain virus.

This is a very tragic matter which should have been dealt with more efficiently by the NHS doctors. Jane was simply “dosed up on morphine and left to die in a corner” her husband reported. Her husband said that “doctors failed again and again to spot the fatal virus that was killing her and did not transfer her to a specialist brain ward at a nearby hospital because no beds were available”. Jane was given morphine by nurses and left in a bed where nurses “put bars around to stop her climbing out”. This is horrendous treatment for a patient to have to endure. The hospital is now placing an investigation to look into the circumstances of Jane Harrop’s death.
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People fall over all the time, it’s more common for the elderly to trip and they aren’t as responsive as they once may have been. Sometime the falls happen because the person in question looses balance etc. but sometime the falls can happen as a result of someone else’s negligence.

Many people are unaware that if you have an accident on a public road or footpath and the accident has happened because of a defect in the road then you may potentially have a valuable claim for compensation.

The council are required to maintain public footpaths and public highways, if this hasn’t happened then the council may be negligent.
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An accident at work can happen more frequently than many of us realise and people need to be aware of the dangers surrounding them.

Particularly employees who work for manufacturing companies with large machinery, as they are more susceptible to injury. A prime example of this is one gentleman who recently lost 4 of his fingers according to “The Claim Connection Website”.

The incident tells us that the gentleman in question was working with a colleague on some machinery which was used to cut plastic. The plastic became jammed in the machine and the gentleman thought his colleague had switched off the machine so he put his hand inside to free the piece of plastic and the guillotine cutter came down and severed four of his fingers.
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Cases of stress in the workplace are on the rise every year and it is becoming a costly problem for all businesses. Studies have shown that approximately 1 in 3 of all workers experience high level of stress and a quarter of all workers state that their job is the main cause of stress in their lives. The latest figures released by the Health and Safety Executive show that absences from work cost the economy over £12 billion and of this it is estimated that stress related illness and absence now costs in the region of £5-7 billion.

So, what is workplace stress and what can you do about it? The Definition of workplace stress is the harmful physical and emotional response that occurs when there is a poor match between job demands and the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. If you have suffered extreme stress as a result of your job then you may be able to claim compensation however, proving such claims is notoriously difficult as the evidential burden on anyone making a claim is extremely high. Another of the main problems in making a claim for stress is proving foreseeability and you need to ask the question: is it reasonable to suggest that the employer could have foreseen the injury?
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Sky and BBC news have recently published reports regarding an elderly woman who sustained injuries when a cleaning product exploded in her face.

Grandmother, Sheila Insch, was in the process of unblocking her drain using a product called ‘Dr Drain’ at her home in Hampshire when the product suddenly exploded causing the substance to splash all over her face. Mrs. Insch was rushed to Southampton General Hospital by her daughter where she received treatment for facial burns. However, Doctors have stated that she was lucky not to lose her eyesight and it was only the instinctive reaction of closing her eyes that prevented this.

Mrs. Insch said she experienced extreme pain and has issued a warning to others using similar products and has confirmed that she followed the instructions provided with the product in full. She said “I read the instructions and put two drops in. It started to bubble so I turned round to see what was happening and it exploded. It hit the ceiling and went straight into my face. I just grabbed something to wipe my face and I kept washing my face all the way to hospital. It was terribly painful, burning, it hurt“. Her daughter also described her horror and anguish stating “There’s nothing you could say to actually describe seeing your mother’s face melting in front of you“.
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Road traffic accidents are a part of everyday life; particular for us at The Injury Lawyers, dealing with countless road accident claims on a day to day basis. Unfortunately, drivers can often be negligent and accidents occur; and a claim can be brought against them. But when an accident is caused because of the drivers’ selfishness and recklessness, it’s an altogether different story.

According to sources from The Sun (source), a “maniac” driver who stole a car and killed a 70 year old pensioner by driving on to a pavement to avoid a police box manoeuvre as he was being chased by officers has been given an 11 year jail sentence for his criminal act. In my opinion, this is hardly a punishment that fits the crime, if I am to be perfectly honest.
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Toyota has opened itself up to a lot of problems recently with the recall they had on some faulty manufacturing. The ‘Mail Online’ has said that around 270,000 of the petrol electric hybrids may have to be checked. Toyota hasn’t officially stated that they are having a recall but have admitted that the new models have a software problem that is affecting the brakes!

Toyota has already recalled 8 million of their vehicles over fears of faults with the accelerator and the brakes. Obviously, these are the two main components of a car in particular if the brakes don’t work then you’re definitely in trouble!

The first claim made by a driver was back in September. His Solicitor was representing him to win a case where his Toyota had run into a brick wall at 30mph because the brakes wouldn’t work!! Not surprisingly he suffered serious head injuries.
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Most of us would go to the Dr and if he told us we were green we would probably believe him as we think they know best. Clearly they didn’t in the case of one girl who will remain unnamed.

The girl was told she had a malignant bone tumour in her right leg and underwent major surgery to remove most of the leg below the knee and had a metal plate fitted in place of this. The metal plate was causing her great discomfort and restriction. An example of this is that she was used to playing tennis as a hobby, she used to enjoy it a great deal but she could no longer play the sport because of the horrific mistake.

To make matters a million times worse! The so called “medical professionals” revealed to her that they were wrong and that she didn’t have any form of cancer and the chemotherapy they had been treating her for and the amputation was all totally unnecessary!
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