The family of a young woman dead woman because of a’overdose from paracetamol in a public hospital English, has decided to initiate a legal action against the health facility. Laura Higginson, a trainee lawyer and mother of two, went to the hospital to treat pneumonia in April 2017. But the woman died two weeks later from multi-organ failure and sepsis. The Whiston Hospital, in Merseyside, as reported by The Independent newspaper, has admitted overdose as the cause of death, but has also denied any responsibility, providing a very different account of the story and excluding, in fact, the guilt.
The report
Still, reports from experts polled by the Independent, including one liver specialist, would seem to nail the hospital to its responsibilities. The woman – which weighed only 36 kg – would have suffered from aliver failure due to taking an excessive dose of paracetamol. The mistake was acknowledged by the medical staff on the third day, but Laura’s family was never informed. Conversely, the doctors would have drawn up a report «littered with inaccuracies», Covering up the story. These are the words used by the Laura’s husband, Antony Higginson, in an interview with the Independent: «We just want justice; we don’t care about money. Laura died in vain and all the institutions in charge of ensuring safe care failed out of the blue making Laura’s life a number, a worthless statistic.»
The complaint
Antony, a former soldier, spent thousands of pounds forcing the system to reopen the case. A third coroner has now opened an investigation. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has confirmed it is considering bringing manslaughter charges against the St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals Trust, which runs Whiston Hospital, after a file was passed to them by Merseyside police. Delays in making a decision on the case prompted Laura’s family to speak up. The young woman’s mother, Denise, was clear: «We are hindered at all times and it is not fair».
Laura’s death doesn’t seem like an isolated case. The overdose of underweight adults in hospital wards of the NHS was reported by the safety watchdog, the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch, in a report earlier this year. There have been six incidents at St Helen’s Trust in the past four years in which patients received a higher dose of acetaminophen than they should have had due to low body weight.
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