Tragedy caused by simple medical error
THIS is a story of a tragedy that overcame a happily-married couple. It began and ended somewhere in the short distance between two West Midlands hospitals. But it was not caused by a single act of incompetence, or by a grotesque incident of malpractice.
Raymond Hulse, 47, died in the City Hospital, Birmingham, because staff there failed to continue treating him with a medicine he had been receiving nearby at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It was an act of omission, a simple and avoidable oversight that proved lethal.
Raymond, of Carnegie Avenue, Tipton, had fallen ill with what was diagnosed as idiopathic acute transverse myelitis (TM). His spinal cord had become inflamed.
The spinal cord carries nerve fibres to the limbs and sensory fibres from the body back to the brain. So any inflammation within the spinal cord interrupts these "pathways".
It is neither a well-known condition, but nor is it rare. As many as five people per million - adults and children - develop TM each year, displaying symptoms that emerged rapidly.
It never became clear how or why Raymond fell ill. His legs weakened. His condition was serious and there was some doubt whether he would have made a full recovery, or been able to return to work in the delivery section of a supermarket.
But his death in January 2005 should have been averted.
Doctors treating him at the Queen Elizabeth prescribed injections of Heparin. It is an anticoagulant, preventing the development of clots in the blood. Withdrawn from the Heparin, a blood clot formed in one of Raymond's deep veins.
This deep-vein thrombosis travelled to his lung, where it blocked an artery. Raymond died.
His widow, Carol, is still not reconciled to her husband's death. She blames the hospital for Raymond's death and turned for advice to a Bond Pearce solicitor with an impressive track record investigating medical negligence.
"It is a very sad case," said the clinical negligence lawyer. "We investigated and presented evidence that the hospital accepted - Raymond died because the hospital breached its duty to care for him.
"Carol has now been awarded damages. But in this case and many others, the sums are nowhere near as high as some people imagine.
"Nothing can compensate Carol for her loss or the appalling experience she went through. She's lost a loving husband.
"And all she has to console her during her grief is the knowledge that Raymond should not have died like this."
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