Shantala Carr, Solicitor/Partner in our medical negligence team, has settled a claim for Ms X for £50,000 for mental health failings that lead to Mrs X making a serious suicide attempt by jumping off Dover Cliffs.
In 2017 Ms X was under the care of Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT), including the Single Point of Access team, the Crisis Resolution Home Treatment (CRHT) team and the Community Mental Health team (CMHT) due to a history of depression and anxiety.
She started suffering from suicidal thoughts in May 2017 and took two overdoses in July 2017. The CMHT told her to contact primary care Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT). Ms X contacted IAPT but was told she could not access IAPT because an open referral to secondary services was in place.
In August 2017 Ms X took a third overdose for which she was admitted and discharged the same day. Despite the Psychiatric Liaison Service considering that Ms X needed an informal admission to a psychiatric hospital, she was left at home under the care of the CRHT and discharged back to the CMHT.
There was then no contact from any of the KMPT services for 12 days.
Later in August 2017 an ambulance was called to Ms X’s home as she was suicidal, had not eaten or drunk for seven days and had collapsed. The ambulance service called for an out of hours GP to attend. The GP contacted KMPT who advised to get Ms X sectioned and taken to A&E with the assistance of the police and the ambulance service as she was refusing to go to hospital. The GP contacted the police to request attendance.
Despite it being noted that Ms X was possibly psychotic, causing harm to herself, was suicidal, wanting to die and was a danger to herself, the GP and ambulance service left, on the basis that the police would attend later that day.
The police were unable to attend due to restrictions of when they are able to detain patients under the Mental Health Act 1983.
Nobody made any further contact with Ms X who was found at the bottom of Dover Cliffs, a fall of around 100 feet, having attempted suicide. She had suffered multiple injuries including a left haemopneumothorax, pneumomediastinum, sternal fracture, bilateral rib, left renal laceration grade 2, multiple transverse process fractures and unstable L2 fracture for which she required surgery. She made a remarkable recovery but has been left with permanent back pain.
There was no claim for loss of earnings or care as Ms X did not work prior to the incident and does not require any care.
A medical negligence claim was brought against KMPT (for inadequate care in the lead up to the serious suicide attempt as well as failing to take action when the GP rang them and subsequently), the GP and the ambulance crew (for leaving the scene when Ms X was a danger to herself and failing to ensure she was safe).
All three defendants denied liability arguing that Ms X had capacity and therefore was within her rights to refuse to go to hospital. Further, they argued that the serious suicide attempt was not avoidable. We argued that Ms X was mentally unwell and a danger to herself, which required healthcare professionals to ensure she was admitted to hospital for assessment and sectioning.
All three defendants continued to deny liability but after negotiations, the case settled for £50,000.
Shantala Carr states:
“I regularly deal with cases involving mental health failings which lead to patients taking their own lives, or attempting to do so and suffering serious injuries. In all of these cases, patients or their families/friends have reached out to mental health services but have not received the care they needed. In some cases the patients are too mentally unwell to realise they are a danger to themselves; in other cases, they feel fobbed off or not taken seriously by the mental health services which exacerbates their existing mental health issues.
Ms X was incredibly lucky to survive her fall from the Cliffs but has been left with significant daily pain. The outcome could have been very different.”
Ms X states:
“I urge all patients in similar situations to please come forward and don’t feel intimated by the system.”