‘Eleanor’, 64

Eleanor suffered a catastrophic brain injury after she was sent home from hospital despite signs of a serious internal bleed. Eleanor went on to suffer a major bleed, which caused her organs to fail and her brain to be starved of oxygen. Initially her husband ‘Peter’, who was in his 70s, looked after a now significantly disabled Eleanor. However, after JMW’s specialist medical negligence team took on Eleanor’s case, compensation was paid to cover the cost of specialist carers to support Peter and adaptations to their home, given Eleanor was too unwell to be moved. 

Tragically, Eleanor died a few years after the hospital’s negligence, but JMW secured a final compensation payment of £684,000 for Peter to help him to cope with the loss of his wife. 

What went wrong? 

Eleanor first became aware that something was wrong when she felt very unwell one morning and a few hours after waking she vomited fresh blood. Eleanor had also noticed that a bowel movement she had passed that morning had contained blood. She’d had stomach cramps for the previous two days but hadn’t believed it to be anything to be concerned about at that time, but now there seemed to be something seriously wrong. Peter called an ambulance, which arrived a short time later and took Eleanor to their local A&E department. 

Eleanor was admitted to an assessment unit, where she continued to feel very unwell but did not vomit any more blood. Eleanor was examined by a doctor and some blood tests were taken. The doctor thought Elenor had suffered a bleed from her stomach or food pipe (gullet), probably from an ulcer. The doctor said that if Eleanor’s vomiting continued to be settled while she was in hospital, and she was eating and drinking okay, she would be discharged home and would be sent an appointment for further investigations on a non-urgent basis. 

However, critically, Eleanor’s blood test results, and the fact that her heart was beating very fast, showed that there was a very high risk that she would suffer another bleed. Eleanor needed to be kept in hospital for monitoring, urgent investigations and treatment. Nevertheless, the hospital pushed ahead with discharging Eleanor, and this was done the following morning.

A&E return 

That afternoon, while back at home, Eleanor vomited a large amount of fresh blood. Peter was unsure of what to do due to her being sent home from hospital, so he called Eleanor’s GP practice. A GP came out to visit Eleanor at home almost straight away and quickly called an ambulance. 

Eleanor was taken back to the A&E department and while in the assessment unit, vomited yet more blood. She was kept in overnight, and staff realised that she needed to have a camera put down her throat to investigate what was happening, however they could not find a doctor who could carry this out. 

When Peter visited the next morning, he was told that Eleanor was very unwell and needed to be transferred to theatre so that the camera procedure could be carried out and surgery conducted to stop the bleeding. Eleanor was put into an induced coma and Peter was warned that she was so unwell she may never leave hospital. 

Peter was later given the devastating news that Eleanor had suffered catastrophic brain damage. Furthermore, he learned that the blood Eleanor had vomited had come from swollen veins in her food pipe (gullet) that had ruptured. The swollen veins had been caused by damage to her liver, which was not alcohol related. If the bleeding had been investigated properly, the source and cause would have been discovered and Eleanor would have had surgery to prevent the later bleeds that caused her brain to be starved of oxygen. 

The impact of Eleanor’s brain damage was very severe and initially she could not speak and required a lot of therapy to learn how to communicate. Her short-term memory also barely functioned, and she suffered severe fatigue. Eleanor could also no longer walk and spent most of her day in a wheelchair. She couldn’t get upstairs to her bedroom so would sleep on a sofa in the living room, with Peter on a different sofa, so he could be there if she needed him. Eleanor’s mood was very low, and she was unable to take part in the activities she used to enjoy, or message her friends and family. 

Peter was distraught by what had happened to his wife but cared for her round the clock with some support from his family. He felt strongly that something had gone badly wrong with Eleanor’s hospital treatment and that if she hadn’t been sent home when the bleed first occurred, she wouldn’t be in the tragic situation she now found herself. 

Peter was put in touch with JMW’s specialist medical negligence team, and we took on Eleanor’s case and launched an immediate investigation. 

JMW’s investigation 

Our investigation began with an analysis of Eleanor’s medical records so that we could set out the dates and times of the treatment that we were concerned about. Our suspicion was that Eleanor’s initial hospital care had been negligent and that this had delayed the correct diagnosis and treatment.

Our next step was to contact independent medical experts working within the relevant fields of medicine, to look at the medical records and our concerns. We asked the experts to prepare reports with their opinion on whether mistakes had been made and if there had, the impact on Eleanor’s condition. 

The experts agreed that the hospital had failed Eleanor by not keeping her in for urgent investigations and surgery and hadn’t recognised the warning signs that her condition was extremely serious. The experts confirmed that if doctors had acted as they should have done, Eleanor would have been successfully treated and made a full recovery. 

JMW built a strong case against the hospital trust, which led to it making a full admission of negligence, paving the way for compensation to be secured for Eleanor.

Hospital negligence compensation

JMW was able to obtain what is known as ‘interim’ compensation for Eleanor so that her house could be adapted to create a proper downstairs bedroom so that she no longer had to sleep on a sofa. It also enabled her to be visited by specialist carers, relieving some of the pressure on Peter. 

Sadly, Eleanor never fully recovered and died a few years after her injury. However, thanks to JMW’s involvement, Peter received some compensation to provide him with financial security and assistance as he coped with the avoidable death of his wife.