It seems that the tragedy of medical negligence has again hit the news, with BBC reporting of a Mother’s fatal heart attack after a drug was incorrectly administered.

According to BBC reports 30 year old theatre nurse Mayra Cabrera died of a heart attack shortly after giving birth to her son Zac in May 2004, after the drug Bupivacaine, which is supposed to be administered by epidural, was instead injected in to her arm by way of an intravenous drip. It is reported that fortunately baby Zac survived. (source).

The hospital in Swindon is now being prosecuted over alleged health and safety breaches and will be appearing at a magistrate’s court at a later date. An inquest in to the death has already concluded it as unlawful with the coroner making several recommendations including better labelling of drugs.
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A new fence may have been responsible for the death of a man whose car was hit by a train in North Yorkshire.

According to the BBC, Mr John Power, 54, died when his car went on to the railway tracks at Copmanthorpe in 2006.

An inquest which was being held in York heard how a new fence had been erected near the tracks six weeks prior to the accident and that, not only was the new fence not as visible as the previous fence, it did not indicated that there were railway tracks beyond it.

Mr John Milner, who lived locally and gave evidence at the inquest, also criticised the signage in the area which he felt failed to sufficiently alert drivers to the nearby railway line.
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If you have been keeping up with the news lately, you may have heard of the calls for law changes for sun tanning salons; in particular the unsupervised ones.

Personaly I am amazed there is such thing as an unsupervised tanning salon, given the nature of the service they provide!

Thesun.co.uk has reported of the 14 year old girl who earlier this year suffered 70% burns to her body after spending almost 20 minutes in a sun bed! (source).

The girl has placed £1 in a coin operated sun bed for five minutes before adding a further £3 for a further 15 minutes after she felt she was not getting tanned enough. She was rushed to hospital later that day with first degree burns to three quarters of her body and given treatment to rehydrate her body.
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Claiming for personal injury: anyone can do it! The simple formula required for a claim to be successful is that another person or party can be found negligent in their duty of care over others.

This negligence has then caused the victim to be injured or to have suffered in some way, whether physically or psychologically. And this duty of care should be something even more essential in a school…

If you have been keeping up with the news lately, you may have noticed the word ‘bullying’ been thrown about a lot recently. According to the BBC 47% of 14 year olds (almost half!) experience some form of bullying, government statistics have concluded (source).
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A hotel in Yorkshire has been forced to temporarily close after staff were found to be suffering from a stomach infection.

According to the BBC, the Middlethorpe Hall Hotel closed on Sunday when as many as 20 staff reported feeling unwell. The staff are all currently being tested to see whether they have been affected by the norovirus illness. It is not known whether any customers at the hotel suffered illness and the decision to close the hotel temporarily has been acknowledged to be a preventative decision made in the interests of staff and customers.
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Here at The Injury Lawyers, with our many years of successful personal injury cases behind us, we have seen such a variety of ways in which people have been injured in an accident that want their fault. And unfortunately there are still so many ways in which we just cannot tell what is round the corner, just waiting to trip us up; Or worse…

The Mirror.co.uk have reported of the amazing story of the critically injured truck driver impaled on a concealed pole (source).

Jason Ripley was delivering timber to an industrial estate and luckily driving slowly when the 8ft pole concealed by overgrown bushes bounced of the bonnet of the vehicle he was travelling in and smashed through the window before spearing his chest.
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About 60 people suffered injury at a Christmas lights switch-on event in Birmingham.

According to the BBC, over 20,000 people went to Millennium Point in Birmingham to watch boy band, and X-Factor runners-up, JLS switch on the Christmas lights on Saturday.

However, organisers had only anticipated a quarter of that attendance, with just 15,000 being expected to turn up and see the event.

The event had to be stopped after the crowd surged to get in to the already packed square. Barriers gave way leaving four people in need of hospital treatment.
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What do you guys think; should advertising “no win, no fee” guarantees be banned?

Seems pretty extreme but it is a view which has been taken in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia!

The so called ‘ambulance chasers’ have been banned from advertising their services and it is a ban that Attorney-General John Hatzistergos is campaigning to have blanketed across Australia.
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The CICA (Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority) payout compensation to the victims of premeditated assaults and attacks construed as criminal activity.

The CICA as a government related body are strict on the cases they payout for. The BBC have reported of a rather unique case where the judge has awarded favour to the toddler who was attacked by another three year old boy whilst alone in a car (source).

Jay Jones was hit 11 times with a car jack by another three year old boy whilst they were alone in a car, resulting in the boy requiring stitches from a gash on the head and a visit to the nearby hospital for treatment following the attack in 2007.
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Maclaren have moved to provide new safety kits for their pushchairs after parents indicated their concerns that children were suffering injuries trapping their fingers in the hinges.

According to the BBC, the company had originally stated that despite issuing the kits in the US, they would not be following suit with a UK equivalent.  However, now the covers, which will be free, will be sent out to parents who request them.

Maclaren’s original decision was based on the fact that the number of injuries suffered in the UK was considerably lower than in the US.
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