Turned Away Meningitis Victim Wins £3.2m from Public Hospital

A public hospital in England has been forced to shell out £3.2m as compensation to a young man it had turned away eight years ago.

A public hospital in England has been forced to shell out £3.2m as compensation to a young man it had turned away eight years ago. The hospital staff failed recognize the all too tell-tale of meningitis in him. The boy subsequently suffered a stroke, and he would need round-the-clock care for the rest of his life.

Mark Thomas, now 20, has the mind of a child and virtually no short-term memory. He used to be a keen footballer, but now goes to fixtures and forgets the score within minutes of a match finishing.

Meningitis - Causes - Symptoms - Diagnosis - Treatment - FAQs
Meninges are the three layers of membrane that cover the brain and infection of the cerebrospinal fluid between them causes meningitis the disease of the meninges.

He had suffered a series of ear infections which refused to clear up in the six weeks before contracting meningitis in February 2002.

He saw his GP several times but by February 9 his condition deteriorated so much that his parents took him to Walsall Manor Hospital for a blood test.

The schoolboy had the classic signs of meningitis, including a stiff neck, aversion to bright lights and extreme lethargy, which should have rung alarm bells for doctors.

Meningitis in Children
Meningitis is the inflammation of the meninges and caused by viral or bacterial infections. The terminology pyogenic meningitis describes bacterial meningitis.

But he was sent home and the blood test results - which revealed the infection had spread to his brain - were not passed on to his parents.

Five days later his illness worsened and his desperate parents took him back to A&E only to be told by a nurse his condition was not sufficiently serious and they were 'using emergency A&E services inappropriately.'

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But on the insistence of the parents, the blood test results from February 9 were reviewed, and meningitis was finally diagnosed, Daily Mail reported.

Bosses at Walsall NHS Hospital Trust admitted liability for the errors and a settlement was approved by the High Court in Birmingham Wednesday. The £3.2million pay-out will fund a lifetime of future care for Mr Thomas.

An Introduction to Biomedical Ethics
Ethics is the application of values and moral rules to human activities. Bioethics is a subsection of ethics, actually a part of applied ethics that uses ethical principles and decision-making.

His mother noted ruefully, 'My son had to learn to walk again, eat, it was just like having a baby again.

If the doctors had done their job properly and acted more quickly, Mark would now be living a completely normal life.'

Sue James, chief executive of the Trust, said: 'We wish to apologise again to Mark and deeply regret the delay in diagnosing his condition.'

Source-Medindia
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