Lidia Monteverdi on 2GB discussing Medical Negligence 7 August 2021

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CS – Chris Smith/LM – Lidia Monteverdi /C1,2,3, etc – Callers

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Listen to the podcast

Read the transcript below:

CS       Now let’s get through some of these emails. One here from listener Jessica. Jessica wrote I broke my collar bone two weeks ago, went to emergency, had an x-ray and I was told to go home and come back for a follow up in 6 weeks. Well my collar bone hurts and I’m concerned that I should have surgery, would I have a claim of negligence against the hospital?

LM     Hi Jessica, look I’m sorry to hear that you’re in a bit of limbo. So in order to bring a claim in medical negligence there’s four elements you need to establish. You need to show that a duty of care existed and of course that’s very well established that doctors, hospitals and nurses owe a duty of care to their patients. You then need to show that the practitioner or the hospital has breached their duty of care to you which caused you to suffer from some damage or harm. Now given that your collar bone was only broken 2 weeks ago my suggestion is that it’s probably too early to tell what your damage in a legal sense is and that’s because you’re still recovering and you’re seeking treatment. So if when you get to the 6 week check-up you’re told that you should have had surgery earlier and that if you had surgery earlier you would have had a better outcome then you would probably have a good claim in negligence. What I would say  is that you should monitor the situation and I’d encourage you to seek legal advice when you have a better idea about what your future is going to hold.

CS       The second half of her email was interesting too. From Jess, she says I haven’t been able to work and I’m worried about the cost of the claim, how much does it cost?

LM     Look Jess, I hear your concerns about not having any income so if you can establish liability which means that if you can establish the hospital breached its duty of care to you which has caused you to suffer from some damage then you can claim for your lost wages as well as any out of pocket expenses, need for domestic care and assistance and your pain and suffering, now in terms of costs, Turner Freeman charge our costs on a no win, no fee basis, so this means that we don’t charge you anything unless or until you get some compensation.

CS       How often does that happen Lidia, like someone turns up at a busy hospital and they get the wrong advice or the wrong symptoms or treatment identified.

LM     It happens quite frequently Chris and to be frank I think a lot of the issue is what you’ve just touched on, is that if you turn up to a busy hospital the practitioners are run off their feet, there’s not enough staff, there’s not enough resourcing and so often what that means is that communication just declines and while there might not actually be any concerns from a negligence point of view it just means that the patient has a really poor experience and look in my view it’s always worthwhile asking the question.

CS       Brilliant, thank you Lidia, much appreciated, have a good weekend.

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