A pensioner who lost an arm to a flesh-eating bug after a paramedic decided not to rush her to hospital has won the right to up to £150,000 in compensation from the NHS.
Patricia Austin, 78, contracted the bacteria after injuring her arm during a pilates class at her local church hall and initially thought the pain and discomfort was down to a pulled tendon.
She fell ill as the bug spread through her arm and her daughter dialled 999, but a paramedic decided not to take her to A&E believing she was only suffering from an abdominal condition. When Mrs Austin eventually went to hospital the next day, she was diagnosed with the flesh-eating bug — necrotising fasciitis — but it was too late to save her arm.
At the High Court yesterday, Judge Geoffrey Tattersall QC ruled the delay in getting her to hospital was a breach of the duty owed to the patient and he awarded Mrs Austin the right to damages. She had brought the legal claim, valued at up to £150,000, against South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.
The judge said: “Given the history of pain, it was in my judgment not reasonable for the paramedic not to examine the arm. There were 11 hours in which she could have been diagnosed with necrotising fasciitis and received appropriate surgical treatment short of amputation.”
The court heard Mrs Austin felt well enough after the pilates class in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, on August 8, 2012, to go shopping, but sought help from her GP the next day and was diagnosed with a torn tendon in her arm.
The pensioner’s condition dramatically worsened and she collapsed that evening, prompting her daughter, Julie Newman, to call for an ambulance.
Judge Tattersall found the paramedic took no steps to examine the patient’s affected arm and “advised that [she] should continue taking paracetamol and rehydration fluids and that she or her family should contact her GP if the symptoms persisted, or call the ambulance back if they were concerned”.
“The paramedics were in breach of their duty of care owed to Mrs Austin by failing to arrange for her immediate transfer and admission to Stoke Mandeville hospital,” he added.
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“She would have been left with a cosmetically unattractive arm which would have been very weak and very restricted at the elbow, but it would have had some useful, if restricted, function.”
The case will return to court at a later date if the amount of damages Mrs Austin will receive is not agreed.
