compensation for neglect, but how much?

trinidadone

A 95 year old woman, who has advance vascular dementia and bowel cancer is bed ridden and lives on his own. He has carers four times a day. On one occassion, the carers failed to go to her home. She had no water, no food and was not perscrubed her medication, from 7:00am to 9:00pm when the alarm was raised. The local authority has accepted responsibility and offered £50.00 compensation. we think this is quite a small amount, especially the suffering and hurt caused. the local authority has asked for suggestions, I wanted to ask your view point?   

elsien

I’d be more concerned about the measures they are taking to make sure it doesn’t happen again. 

trinidadone

she is with another agency now, so i still want to remain with the subject area. she suffered and could of died

elsien

trinidadone said:

she is with another agency now, so i still want to remain with the subject area. she suffered and could of died

But she didn’t die. And what harm was caused? Was the missed medication one that would have had an immediate impact such as pain relief or something like vitamin D, where missing one tablet isn’t going to make any difference? 

It is completely unacceptable, but it’s hard to quantify distress for someone with that degree of Alzheimer’s who may well be unaware of what is happening around them, so were there any after effects? 

How much would the four calls a day cost and who would normally pay for them? 

trinidadone

your first message, started with "she did not die". MMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm that line has really left a nasty taste in my mouth. Yes your correct, she did not pass away, she sat in her urine and feces for the entire day. She also layed in darkness with no external stimuli eg tv or light on. She last fluid and food was at 7pm on a Thursday. On Friday morning, she did not not have her first call at 7am, her second call at 11:30am, her third call at 3:30pm and her last call at 7pm. She is unable to leave her bed at all. The medication relates to her cancer. not sure on costings for her car or who pays. it was random, I attended her home, the carers were not coming back. In regards to understanding the world around her, she most certainly know she has carers, and she knows who i am. Her paid and discomfort was of similar to anyone else suffering from lack of fluids and food. We thought we were going to lose her.      

elsien

You can’t deal with what might have happened. You have to base any claim on what did happen. That was the point I was making.

swingaloo

trinidadone said:

your first message, started with "she did not die". MMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm that line has really left a nasty taste in my mouth. Yes your correct, she did not pass away, she sat in her urine and feces for the entire day. She also layed in darkness with no external stimuli eg tv or light on. She last fluid and food was at 7pm on a Thursday. On Friday morning, she did not not have her first call at 7am, her second call at 11:30am, her third call at 3:30pm and her last call at 7pm. She is unable to leave her bed at all. The medication relates to her cancer. not sure on costings for her car or who pays. it was random, I attended her home, the carers were not coming back. In regards to understanding the world around her, she most certainly know she has carers, and she knows who i am. Her paid and discomfort was of similar to anyone else suffering from lack of fluids and food. We thought we were going to lose her.      

So should you not be more concerned with making sure it does not happen again. Perhaps family or friends could keep a closer eye.  Seems odd to be thinking in terms of compensation money.  You say 'We think this is a small amount' so what amount would you be happy with and how would her suffering be any different if they offered a larger amount?

p00hsticks

swingaloo said:

trinidadone said:

your first message, started with "she did not die". MMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm that line has really left a nasty taste in my mouth. Yes your correct, she did not pass away, she sat in her urine and feces for the entire day. She also layed in darkness with no external stimuli eg tv or light on. She last fluid and food was at 7pm on a Thursday. On Friday morning, she did not not have her first call at 7am, her second call at 11:30am, her third call at 3:30pm and her last call at 7pm. She is unable to leave her bed at all. The medication relates to her cancer. not sure on costings for her car or who pays. it was random, I attended her home, the carers were not coming back. In regards to understanding the world around her, she most certainly know she has carers, and she knows who i am. Her paid and discomfort was of similar to anyone else suffering from lack of fluids and food. We thought we were going to lose her.      

So should you not be more concerned with making sure it does not happen again. Perhaps family or friends could keep a closer eye.  Seems odd to be thinking in terms of compensation money.  You say 'We think this is a small amount' so what amount would you be happy with and how would her suffering be any different if they offered a larger amount?

I agree with this - direct financial compensation is not going to help the lady, instead you need to be getting the authority to looking into spending extra money putting additional safeguards in place to ensure it does not happen again.

For example - does the person have a suitable alarm pendant in place that they could use ? Why was it not realised sooner that in-house visits were not taking place and what additional processes could be put in place to have flagged this up at an earlier stage ?

[Edit] And should she even be at home at all, rather than in a care home with constant monitoring ?

Danien

I'm sorry, but someone in that state should not be on home care, they should be in 24 hour care in a care or nursing home or hospice. Someone who is bedbound, incontinent and unable to get food and fluids as needed is unable to be properly cared for in their home. I've seen this with bedbound dementia patients a couple of times where a family member is trying to protect their inheritance, not saying that is necessarily happening here.  What is the reason she is still at home? I believe it is neglect on your part to keep her alone in her home where she cannot be properly cared for. She is undoubtedly suffering every day in that situation and as she has dementia is unable to decide in her own best interests. Stop worrying about getting money and start worrying about what she really needs to be comfortable in her last months or years.

In nursing care she would be getting regular fluids, two hour turns to prevent bed sores and skin breakdown due to incontinence. Not to mention company and other care that cannot be provided in 4 daily visits. There is absolutely no way she should be lying in her own urine and faeces all night. It's horrific.

Keep_pedalling

Unfortunately with home care things can go wrong through and carers often turn up unavoidably late and occasional fail to attend I don’t see how financial compensation can help her in any way, what needs to happen is for a better care plan and from your description of her current state of health she really should be in a nursing home not being on her own most of the day. 

DullGreyGuy

trinidadone said:

she is with another agency now, so i still want to remain with the subject area. she suffered and could of died

Damages in the UK are based on what did happen not what might of happened. 

They are divided into two, most damages claims are Special Damages, these reflect the actual financial loss sustained (eg the cost of repairing your car after a crash or your loss of earnings after you were injured). The other are General Damages which predominantly cover pain, suffering and loss of amenities and cover the non-financial losses.

All damages need to be evidenced, for special damages its generally easy because you show the invoice from the bodyshop or wage slips showing you only got SSP for the period. For general damages it often needs a medical report to confirm the extent and consequences etc. 

I'm confused that you introduce the matter as a 95 year old woman but then refer to them has "he/his" pronouns for the rest of the original post but then switch to She/Her in later posts?

Has it actually been shown that the council was negligent or is this just goodwill monies they are offering? 

£50 doesn't sound a vast sum but its not clear what medication was missed nor if there are long term consequences of missing/late administration for a single day? If it were just general health boosters with no long term impact then not terrible offer. If they are analgesics and as a consequence they were in a high level of pain for the day then it may be a bit tight. 

I echo the opinion of others that it sounds like the overall setup needs further consideration as ultimately life happens and there is never 100% coverage guarantee.