Going through medical negligence with your child

When your child has suffered harm due to medical negligence, the journey ahead can feel overwhelming. Parents face the emotional trauma of watching their child suffer as well as complex medical and legal challenges. Understanding your rights, the legal process, and available support systems is essential for protecting your child’s future whilst going through this difficult period. With medical negligence compensation payouts reaching a record £2.8 billion in 2023-24, it’s clear that healthcare errors affecting children remain a serious concern that needs immediate attention and expert guidance.

Recognising When Medical Negligence May Have Occurred

Identifying potential medical negligence requires understanding when healthcare falls below acceptable standards. Key warning signs include misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, birth injuries that could have been prevented, surgical errors, medication mistakes, or failure to respond appropriately to deteriorating conditions. Obstetric errors are particularly costly, accounting for 56.7% of NHS compensation payouts despite representing only 12.8% of all claims, highlighting the severity of birth-related injuries.

If your child’s condition worsened unexpectedly, if promised treatments were delayed, or if medical staff dismissed your concerns about deteriorating symptoms, these could indicate negligence. Gathering a clear factual picture is essential. Here, you should aim to collect medical records, document conversations with healthcare providers, and note any instances where your parental instincts suggested something was wrong.

Acting Promptly: Legal Time Limits and Litigation Friends

Time limits for medical negligence claims involving children differ from adult cases. Parents act as ‘litigation friends’ for their children, and you generally have until your child turns 21 (three years after their 18th birthday) to issue court proceedings. However, starting the process early is important for several reasons: evidence becomes harder to gather over time, witnesses’ memories fade, and early intervention can secure interim payments for ongoing care needs.

As a litigation friend, you may need to initiate medical negligence claims on behalf of your child well before they reach 21 to meet practical deadlines and guarantee the best possible outcome. This extended timeframe exists because children cannot make legal decisions themselves, but it shouldn’t encourage delay in seeking professional advice.

Gathering Evidence and Working with Solicitors

Building a strong medical negligence case needs good evidence collection and specialist legal expertise. Your solicitor will help gather medical records, witness statements, and expert medical reports to establish both breach of duty and causation. This process involves proving that the healthcare provided fell below acceptable standards and directly caused your child’s injuries.

Specialist solicitors can often secure interim payments to cover immediate care needs while the main claim progresses. They’ll work with medical experts to calculate appropriate compensation, considering future care requirements, lost earnings potential, and the impact on your child’s quality of life. The evidence-gathering phase is essential and can take months or even years for complex cases.

Support Beyond Legal Action: Charities and Systemic Change

Legal action is only one aspect of dealing with medical negligence. Emotional and practical support from organisations like Action Against Medical Accidents (AvMA) provides invaluable guidance throughout the process. Many families find that raising awareness about their experiences leads to broader improvements in healthcare systems. The introduction of Martha’s Rule across NHS hospitals shows how parental advocacy can drive systemic change, giving families the right to request urgent reviews when they feel their concerns about a child’s deteriorating condition are being ignored.

This initiative, now implemented in over 143 hospitals, has already led to 241 potentially life-saving interventions, showing how recognising parental insight can prevent future tragedies. Your experience, whilst traumatic, could contribute to preventing similar incidents for other families.

Going through medical negligence with your child needs both immediate action and long-term planning. While the legal process can be lengthy and complex, securing appropriate compensation and support guarantees that your child receives the care they need whilst potentially preventing similar incidents from happening to other families.