Care home scold compensation claim
We pursued a care home scold compensation claim on behalf of a 42 year old man, who for privacy we will call ‘A’, who suffers from congenital cerebral palsy, including tetraplegia and epilepsy, and is wheelchair bound.
A is a resident at a care home and requires assistance with all aspects of his daily living activities. He lacks capacity under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
In September 2015 A was given a hot cup of coffee by an agency nurse at the care home. Due to his ataxia A usually drinks from an insulated cup and only has lukewarm drinks. On this occasion the drink was made from a freshly boiled kettle. A was given the cup and subsequently spilt it on his groin area. A district nurse that was in the building, attended and cooled the burns with cold towels. Blisters were observed almost immediately in the affected areas.
We agreed to take on the case and entered into a No Win, No Fee agreement; which is now the most common method of funding medical negligence and personal injury compensation claims.
After submitting a detailed ‘Letter of Claim’ an early admission of liability was made by the care home. This meant that we were then able to turn our attention to assessing the amount of compensation that our client should receive. A was seen by a plastic surgeon who observed extensive scarring and mixed depth superficial – deep partial thickness scald burn injuries as well as deep dermal burns. However, after approximately 6 months of the incident the wounds had healed.
Following extensive negotiations settlement was agreed between the parties with our client being paid compensation of £14,000. Due to the fact that A lacked capacity the settlement required the approval of a judge. We therefore made the necessary application to the court and the award was ratified.