Clinical negligence solicitor Suzanne White represented the family of Mr Setal Kotwani after the inquest into his death in December 2005. Mr Kotwani was admitted to Southend Hospital in Essex for a routine knee operation. Mr Kotwani was sent to an outlying non-specialist orthopaedic ward, where he was not seen by a doctor until the third post operative day. During this time the nursing staff failed to undertake basic observations. He received such poor care that he suffered renal failure, obstruction and he died after a cardiac arrest. Our expert described the care that Mr Kotwani received post operatively at Southend Hospital as “disgraceful”.
The first inquest into Mr Kotwani’s death was suspended because the Trust had not prepared a case. A second inquest was suspended because the Trust sent evidence to the Coroner only two weeks before it was due to be heard, which the family had not had time to consider. The Inquest finally took place in February 2008, when the family heard that it was likely that Mr Kotwani would have survived had he received the appropriate care. The Coroner said that he believed :
“All the evidence seems to suggest that we have not just a sequence of failures some of which are undoubtedly gross, but that there was on the medical evidence, a clear and direct causal link between some of the gross failure and the death itself.“
The grief felt by Mr Kotwani’s family after his death was further exacerbated by the failure of the NHSLA to admit liability. Suzanne White wrote to the Trust in August 2008, to ask them to admit liability in order to save costs. However, the NHSLA (acting on behalf of the Trust ) would not make a full admission of liability. As a result of the failure of the NHSLA to admit liability, legal costs escalated as Ms White had to instruct liability experts, Counsel and begin legal proceedings. The case finally settled in July 2009.
Suzanne White said “The pain and suffering of the Kotwani family has been compounded further by the failure of the NHSLA and the Trust to admit liability despite the Coroner’s verdict. Substantial and unnecessary costs have been incurred as a result.
The Coroner said that he was prepared to return a verdict including neglect – and stated that in his 16 years as a Coroner, he could not recall whether he had ever included neglect in a verdict before. I am entirely at a loss as to why this case was not resolved much earlier, and it concerns me that the Chief Executive of the NHSLA Steve Walker can say that the Coroner’s findings were “equivocal.”
For more information please contact
Suzanne White on 020 7650 1200.
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