Settlement for HCC client following NHS mistakes
23rd Sep 2024
When Kathleen Maher, 52, attended her local GP in Jarrow, in the North East in 2018, she thought she was in safe hands when she arrived in the surgery complaining of feeling ill.
Kathleen Maher – photo kindly provided by the family
In the event, a catalogue of mistakes made by the GP with multiple missed diagnoses led to life-changing circumstances.
This harrowing case pursued relentlessly by our partner Mike Molloy and his team over the past five years against the NHS has now resulted in a substantial settlement which enables our client to receive the care and support she need to live her life as independently as possible with the support of her loving family.
Background
With her career experience as a legal secretary dealing with similar cases it was with tragic irony that Kathleen Maher found herself summoning up all her own professional experience alongside immense physical and emotional strength to tackle the NHS in her own case.
Kathleen’s ordeal began in 2018 when she began to feel ill and visited her GP on two consecutive days complaining of illness. Initially her condition was dismissed as a viral infection and then when she returned, she was sent away with Amoxicillin, a common antibiotic.
However, things took a major turn for the worse when she collapsed at home.
Anthony, her brother discovered Kathleen and rushed her to South Tyneside District Hospital where it was discovered she had experienced multiple organ failure caused by several major infections – including double pneumonia, endocarditis, influenza B, and sepsis.
Amputation
She was placed in an induced coma in ICU – and woke up six weeks later to find that all four limbs were unusable and eventually underwent the amputation of all four limbs in order to save her life.
She was eventually transferred to Sunderland Hospital where the Amputation Foundation supported her and the family in contacting Mike Molloy, partner at HCC, who immediately agreed to represent Kathleen after listening to her concerns, particularly about the way she was treated by her GP at the outset of her illness.
Building a case against the NHS Trust
Mike and his team at HCC immediately set about gathering all the evidence, medical records, appointed expert witnesses with a detailed knowledge of General Practice, NHS and medical protocols and launched the fight to ensure that Kathleen and her family got whatever she needed to support her in terms of multidisciplinary rehabilitation, new accommodation, assistive technology and care for her new life. She recently had her first appointment at STEPS Rehabilitation to explore a range of new prosthetics using the latest technology to assist in her mobility which go above and beyond the standard NHS provision.
Michael Maher, 68, Kathleen’s brother said:
“Taking on the NHS is a daunting prospect for anyone but I can’t emphasise enough the support that Mike Molloy and his team has given to our family. Mike and Coleen and the rest of his team put us at ease straight away, explained everything to us in a straightforward way and always kept us updated on progress with the case.
“Mike was fantastic and left us under no illusions about how challenging cases like this can be for families. He was always realistic and pragmatic in his advice from the start.
“It was a very difficult case to prove but we knew we had surrounded ourselves with the best legal and medical professionals to help support our case and ultimately get the settlement that Kathleen needed.
“It is important for other families to know that by appointing an experienced lawyer who works closely alongside expert witnesses, senior KC’s and experienced medical professionals with detailed knowledge of NHS procedures they can make a successful claim when mistakes, like the ones made in Kathleen’s case, are made by doctors.”
“Mike and his team clearly had our best interests at heart every single step of the way and we’d like to thank the Amputation Foundation for putting us in touch.
“It has been an absolute pleasure to deal with Mike Molloy, Colleen Marley and the wider legal team at HCC who fought Kathleen’s case with such dedication. Without their support and expertise the outcome may not have been so positive.
“In the end, by the time we agreed on the settlement for Kathleen, dealing with Mike and his team truly felt like talking to good friends which I hope is testament to the level of personal service we received and provides some level of comfort to other families who find themselves in a similar scenario to our family.”
Mike Molloy, partner at HCC, said:
Mike Molloy, partner at HCC
“Our successful legal action against the NHS was as a result of the GPs failure to correctly diagnose the serious conditions she was suffering from upon her initial arrival.
“This led to catastrophic and life-changing injuries which not only caused emotional trauma and physical trauma but immediately prevented Kathleen from undertaking any meaningful activity and caused her immediate retirement from employment in a job she loved.
“Without question her family and her brothers Anthony and Michael have been a tower of strength and as a family they have endured this harrowing process with a strength and dignity that is an example for other families who find themselves in similar circumstances. Kathleen is a strong and positive role model for people who have experienced major trauma or serious injuries and we are proud to have represented her and the family to get to this position where she can move forward with her life with the rehabilitation and support she needs.”
