Boy sustained brain injury after delay in initial CT scan at hospital

Twelve-year-old taken to hospital with head injury suffered a subdural haemorrhage (bleed on the brain) after already having an epileptic fit during x-ray.

Keiran had a history of minor behavioural problems and was struggling with his education.

In 2003, when he was 12 years old, he was riding a motorcycle in his back garden when he lost control and fell off, banging his head, rendering him unconscious.

He was taken to accident and emergency at Kings Mill Hospital. He was seen by a doctor and they carried out an x-ray on his back, but they failed to properly consider his head injury and did not carry out a CT scan. Keiran suffered a severe epileptic fit whilst in x-ray.

For the next two days, Keiran’s health was deteriorating with his blood pressure dropping and his pulse abnormal. They then decided to do a CT scan which revealed Keiran had a severe subdural haemorrhage or bleed on his brain.

He was transferred to Queens Medical Centre for immediate surgery where they drained the bleed to relieve the pressure on his brain. He was transferred to intensive care and two weeks later had recovered enough from the operation to be sent home.

The initial undiagnosed bleed and the subsequent delay in operating caused a moderate brain injury.

This meant Keiran had a poor attention span which led to behavioural problems and his education suffered. He is now 24 years old and is unable to live independently. He also lacks capacity to deal with his financial affairs.

If the initial bleed on his brain had been identified immediately he would have been able to have surgery much sooner and this would have meant Keiran would have had a much better outcome.

We were able to claim substantial compensation for Keiran, even though there were some very complicated issues concerning his behavioural problems prior to the hospital negligence.

Lesley Herbertson acted for Keiran and commented:

With the help of expert evidence and careful negotiation, we were able to demonstrate to the Defendant Hospital Trust that Keiran had been put in a far worse position as a result of the negligence than he would otherwise have been and as a result we recovered a significant sum of money on his behalf.