Woman spends 5 years in care following allergic reaction to nuts
- 11.03.2019
- JessicaMG
- Personal-injury, Personal-injury
Amy May Shead took a single bite of chicken whilst on a trip to Budapest with friends in 2014 and suffered anaphylactic shock.
Miss Shead was assured at the time that her meal did not contain nuts, after showing her allergy card to restaurant staff on no less than three occasions. However, her allergic reaction to the food was immediate. She suffered a cardiac arrest, during which her heart stopped for a total of six minutes, leading to brain damage.
The 31-year-old was also left partially paralysed and with impaired speech and vision following the severe allergic reaction.
Upon her return home to the UK, Miss Shead spent a year at St Thomas' Hospital. This was followed by a further year at the Putney Neurological unit before she was moved to Marillac Care centre in Brentwood, where she spent the next three years.
Miss Shead requires the use of a wheelchair and a 24-hour care package has been put in place so that she may return to live with her parents in their purpose-built annex. Her mother Sue said it was ‘lovely to have her home’.
Miss Shead’s family have also set up a trust in her name in order to raise money for the intensive physiotherapy, speech and language therapy she now receives four times a week.
Mark Robinson, Personal Injury Solicitor here at PRD, comments:
This is a very sad story, however it highlights the importance of compensation. In many personal injury claims the award compensates a claimant for a period of injury and disability until they are able to make a full, or substantial, recovery and return to life as it was before, with no or no major life changing disability. In cases such as Amy’s, this is not the case. Her life will never return to anything like the normality she once knew before injury, and the reward that she would receive will condition to a large extent the quality of life that her and her family have until death.
Mark Robinson is a Personal Injury solicitor here at Potter Rees Dolan, . Should you have any queries about personal injury issues, or indeed any other aspect of this article and wish to speak to Mark or any other member of the team, please contact us on 0161 237 5888 or contact Mark directly.