Boyes Turner’s medical negligence lawyers secured a £250,000 settlement for a widow whose husband died after three GPs failed to refer him for cardiac care.
Our client’s husband had a history of heart problems. After the death of a relative from heart problems he had been advised that he had a 34% chance of suffering from a cardiac event in the next ten years. Over a period of seven months he attended his GP surgery on three occasions, complaining of burning upper retrosternal pain. All three of the doctors he saw assumed that he was suffering from reflux and, despite his medical history, failed to refer him for cardiac review. He died after collapsing at home.
Correct treatment would have been to refer him for an exercise ECG (electrocardiogram). The findings of the ECG would have resulted in further referrals for an angiogram and then for surgery. With correct treatment, his death would have been avoided.
We pursued a claim for the deceased’s widow against the three GPs who had failed to refer her husband for an exercise ECG. Two of the doctors failed to respond to our letters of claim, and the third provided an unsatisfactory response, so we issued court proceedings again all three GP defendants. Our client’s compensation claim included claims for her husband’s pain and suffering before his death, funeral costs and the family’s financial loss of dependency on his income from his business.
All three defendants denied liability but two of the defendants offered our client £100,000 to settle the claim. On our advice, this offer was rejected and the case proceeded towards trial. After further negotiations, our client accepted an out of court settlement of £250,000.
