Would I be able to get compensation without involving a solicitor?

Hasbeen

meraaakauser said:

I gave birth to my daughter in february of this year. I am not happy with how I was treated at the hospital after delivering however I’m not just looking to complain I want to take things further because of the trauma this has caused me. I had my daughter on the 5th of february 2021, I had chosen to get the epidural and I had tore during delivery so I was stitched shortly after. The nurse that was stitching me had said that I would be numbed however when she began I could feel everything. I was screaming at the nurses in the room that the epidural had worn off and that I was in extreme pain, she still carried on and just kept repeating that it would be over soon. I then had a member of the plastics team come into the room to check the stitches as the nurse was having some trouble. I then had to have someone else take out the stitches and redo them as they were not done correctly, again I kept yelling that I could feel everything but was just told that there was not long left. I didn’t lose much blood from delivery but from the stitching alone I lost 700ml of blood. After a few hours myself and my newborn were taken upstairs to the newborns ward where I was placed with another woman that didn’t have a baby. During the night I could hear her coughing constantly and using the bathroom multiple times. I was then told in the morning by a nurse that myself and my newborn were not to leave the room as the woman sharing the room was positive for covid. I asked if I could be moved to another room as I didnt feel safe using the bathroom and I was just told that it would be wiped down which it wasn’t. Because of this I pushed to be discharged earlier as I was scared myself or my baby would fall ill. I spent the rest of the weeks worried sick about my daughter, I took her to the doctors so often because I was so scared that there would be something wrong with her. I’m now afraid of having any further children and terrified of hospitals. My daughter was recently admitted into hospital for having white stools and I cried every day on the phone to my husband because I couldn’t take being there. Thankfully all her tests had came back clear and we were sent home after 3 days. My question is would I need a solicitor in order to get compensation for the way I was treated? I don’t know anything about solicitor fees and i’m worried incase I were not to win my case and i’ve spent all that money on a solicitor. I’m not looking to complain directly to the hospital only to just get an apology. An apology won’t take back all the suffering I went through. Im unsure which category to post this so i’m sorry if i’ve posted it in the wrong one. 
 Thank you for reading 

Quoted to give any help for future posters / posterity.

Op has the unfortunate habit of only posting about what they are entitled to. What they can claim for etc.

Once the advice is given the OP deletes their opening posts

In my opinion the NHS under great  pressure gave the OP the usual great standard of care, and the op only sees money signs!

Very sad, but indictive of a certain culture today.


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Op put in a complaint if you want to. And then move on.

On reading your post. I would also suggest psychological therapies provided free by the NHS to help you in any mental health problems.

Find an NHS psychological therapies service (IAPT) - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

sheramber

It sounds like you should talk to your GP to get help for your anxiety.

JamoLew

Can a mod merge the 2 identical posts please

JJC1956

You probably need to hire an Ambulance chasing No Win No Fee Law firm for advice

Clouds88

They would have been midwives, not nurses. And as a midwife, I would never suture anyone who is 'screaming' as you put you were, in pain. I think you are probably annoyed at aspects at your care and I am not saying you didnt have a bad experience in your eyes you did. 
Complain to the hospital, they will look into your complaints. I am also glad they didnt move you because you would have put other women and their babies at risk. It's normal protocol that the woman would have been moved to covid ward and the remaining women women would have to self isolate until discharge where they continue to isolate at home.

As for compensation, I think you have no chance. There was no gross misconduct and they didnt kill you or your baby. 700mls is a very normal amount of blood to lose and most women do not feel compromised with this amount. 

JamoLew

Clouds88 said:

They would have been midwives, not nurses. And as a midwife, I would never suture anyone who is 'screaming' as you put you were, in pain. I think you are probably annoyed at aspects at your care and I am not saying you didnt have a bad experience in your eyes you did. 
Complain to the hospital, they will look into your complaints. I am also glad they didnt move you because you would have put other women and their babies at risk. It's normal protocol that the woman would have been moved to covid ward and the remaining women women would have to self isolate until discharge where they continue to isolate at home.

As for compensation, I think you have no chance. There was no gross misconduct and they didnt kill you or your baby. 700mls is a very normal amount of blood to lose and most women do not feel compromised with this amount. 

@Clouds88 well said 

As a fellow NHS professional - glad to hear your comments on the first bit I have highlighted and I would hope that is the expected norm, however with anything, I would be loathe to 100% discount the OPs narrative. As we know from experience and history, there are always bad apples in the barrel

Re the 2nd highlighted bit - I suspected as much and said the same on the OPs other identical thread, but nice to have confirmation from someone whose area of expertise covers this

100% agree that the OP should raise a complaint with the hospital. If the standard of care has fallen below the expected, then they need to know to learn from it and improve service delivery in the future

[Deleted User]

Compensation for what?  Childbirth is painful end of.  Modern medicine may alleviate a lot of the pain but is not guaranteed.  Just be happy you have a healthy baby at end of it - but probably you shouldn’t have any more. There’s no guarantee you won’t feel any pain. 

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter. 

macman

To answer the original question, you aren't guaranteed compo with or without a solicitor. You can certainly bring a civil case without one, but medical negligence is not easy to prove, and extremely expensive to conduct, due to the need for independent medical evidence, and you'll need to finance it yourself, or find a solicitor who will take it on a no win, no fee basis-which means they'll need to be sure that you have a very good prospect of winning.
Should you lose, you'll be liable for the other side's full legal expenses, which are potentially into 6 figures or more. If you are prepared and able to take this risk, then you can go ahead. 

Boa21

Sensible advice from Clouds88. If you are still unhappy you should raise a formal complaint with the hospital. There should be details on the hospital's website.

You could talk this through with somone on the AvMA helpline - they will also provide sensible independent advice https://www.avma.org.uk/

mattyprice4004

Just reading your previous threads - you can't expect people to help you and then delete your post so others looking for the same advice and see it in future. 
At least have the common decency to leave this one in tact