By Danielle Parsons. Last Updated 9th November 2023. Welcome to our guide on sepsis medical negligence claims. Did a healthcare professional fail to diagnose you with sepsis as a result of a breach of duty of care? Or perhaps the treatment you received for this condition fell below the minimum standard of care that should be expected? If this is the case, and you were made ill or your condition worsened as a result, you may be able to make a medical negligence claim.
Sepsis is also known as blood poisoning or septicaemia. It can be life-threatening. When you seek medical attention for a serious illness, you expect to receive a minimum standard of care from those treating you. But what happens if sometimes, the care that you receive falls below an acceptable standard and causes you harm or means that your condition gets worse than it otherwise would have. This is known as medical negligence.
A medical negligence solicitor can thoroughly evaluate your case gathering any evidence needed to ensure that you receive the right amount of compensation.
Our team of advisers are on hand 24/7 to speak with you about your situation. If you have a valid case, they can connect you to a medical negligence solicitor from our panel to begin your claim.
You can get in touch with our friendly team of advisers by:
- Calling them on 0800 652 3087 to chat about your case today.
- Filling in our online claims form for a response at your earliest convenience.
- Chatting with an adviser via our live chat pop-up box for an instant response.
Sepsis medical negligence claims
Select A Section
- Eligibility Criteria For Sepsis Medical Negligence Claims
- Examples Of Sepsis Medical Negligence
- Time Limits To Claim For Negligent Medical Care
- What Are Sepsis Medical Negligence Claims Worth?
- No Win No Fee Sepsis Medical Negligence Claims
- Supporting Resources
Eligibility Criteria For Sepsis Medical Negligence Claims
You may like to know about the eligibility requirements that you must satisfy in order to claim sepsis compensation. A medical professional owes you a duty of care the moment they agree to provide you with medical treatment. This means that they must provide the correct standard of care to you.
However, to be eligible to make a medical negligence claim, you will need to prove:
- A medical professional owed you a duty of care.
- There was a breach in this duty.
- You suffered harm that could have been avoided as a result.
Contact one of our advisors to discuss the eligibility criteria for sepsis medical negligence claims. Additionally, if your case meets these requirements, you could be connected to one of our No Win No Fee medical negligence solicitors.
Examples Of Sepsis Medical Negligence
Medical practitioners, such as doctors and nurses, have a legal duty of care to provide a minimum standard of care. If this duty of care is breached, it may be because the doctor has not provided acceptable standards. What could be considered a breach of duty of care:
- Negligent misdiagnosis – A sepsis misdiagnosis can result in you receiving the wrong medication or treatment for the condition you have. Fast treatment is important in treating someone with sepsis, as their health can deteriorate quickly. Furthermore, if you are given treatment for a condition you don’t actually have, this could cause you additional harm.
- Negligent missed diagnosis – Sometimes, your sepsis diagnosis may be missed entirely because the doctor failed to listen to your clear symptoms. This is extremely dangerous, as, without treatment, the sepsis will worsen. If you never receive the correct sepsis diagnosis, it can be life-threatening.
- Negligent delayed diagnosis – This is when the physician’s negligence causes a delay in a sepsis diagnosis which can lead to a significant deterioration in someone’s health, even within a few days.
- Mistakes in testing – Tests, such as blood tests, must be done correctly and efficiently. If a medical professional carries out the tests or interprets the results incorrectly, it can be severely damaging to the person’s health.
Contact our team of advisors today to learn more about claiming for sepsis negligence.
Time Limits To Claim For Negligent Medical Care
The typical claims time limit is generally three years. That means three years from the exact date of the instance of negligence or three years from when you gain knowledge that the negligence caused the ill effect in question. For instance, if a loved one died solely because of medical negligence related to sepsis and this was only revealed as part of an inquest or post-mortem, the three-year time limit would run from when this became known, not the date that they died or became ill.
If you’re under 18, the three-year time limit only begins when you turn 18. Before this, someone you trust can act as a litigation friend to pursue the claim on your behalf. The compensation money will be put into a secure bank account for you to access when you’re over 18. If no claim has been made for you by the time you turn 18, you have until your 21st birthday to claim.
If someone lacks the mental capacity to make a claim, the three-year claims time limit is suspended unless they regain their mental capacity. Otherwise, a litigation friend can pursue the claim for them.
To receive more information about how long you may have left to start a claim, you can contact our team of advisers. They will be happy to offer you free legal advice about medical negligence claim time limits and the exceptions that apply.
What Are Sepsis Medical Negligence Claims Worth?
Some websites offer a medical negligence claims calculator, and these can be useful tools in giving a rough estimate of how much your claim could be worth. However, they often fail to capture the wide range of information needed to accurately value your claim.
For this reason, we’ve created a table including the latest Judicial College Guidelines figures to show how much compensation may be awarded for a variety of injuries. Please be aware that this table is purely an example, and figures could vary.
| Harm | Notes | Guideline Compensation |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple Serious Illnesses and Injuries Plus Special Damages | Compensation awarded for multiple illnesses or injuries plus financial losses. | Up to £500,000+ |
| Brain Damage - Very Severe | The injured party will require full-time nursing care and show little or no evidence of any meaningful response to their environment. | £282,010 to £403,990 |
| Brain Damage - Moderate (i) | The injured party suffers an intellectual deficit that is moderate to severe in nature, changes to their personality, an impact on their sight, speech and senses with a significant epilepsy risk. | £150,110 to £219,070 |
| Arm Amputations - Loss of Both Arms | The claimant has full awareness of the loss of both their arms as well as the state of considerable helplessness as a result. | £240,790 to £300,000 |
| Kidney (a) | The injured party has suffered permanent damage that is serious in nature to one or both of their kidneys. | £169,400 to £210,400 |
| Kidney (b) | The claimant carries a significant risk of future urinary tract infections or other loss of natural kidney funcitoning. | Up to £63,980 |
| Bladder (b) | The claimant has lost control and function of their bladder completely. | Up to £140,660 |
| Leg Injuries - Amputations (iii) | In this bracket, the injured party required an above-knee amputation of one leg. The award considers the level of amputation, phantom pains, related psychological problems, prosthetics and other symptoms. | £104,830 to £137,470 |
| Lungs (a) | A young claimant has been left with a serious disability with a probability of progressive worsening and premature death. | £100,670 to £135,920 |
| One Hand - Total or Effective Loss | In this bracket, the hand or most of the fingers and palm have been amputated. | £96,160 to £109,650 |
| Spleen (a) | This bracket applies to claimants who lost their spleens and this leaves a continuing risk of internal infection and disorders. | £20,800 to £26,290 |
When you make a successful claim for compensation following medical negligence, your claim may be made up of two kinds of damages; general and special damages. General damages provide compensation for the mental and physical impact that the negligence has had on your health.
Special damages give compensation for the financial effect your worsening health condition has had on your life. This can include things like the cost of treatment that you couldn’t get on the NHS or loss of earnings if you’ve had to take time off work. You must provide evidence, or you may not be able to receive special damages. Examples of financial evidence could be a payslip to prove you suffered a loss of earnings or an invoice for a course of treatment you underwent.
It’s important to note that when you make a claim for medical negligence, you will only be compensated for the effects that the negligence has had on you and not the impact of your condition overall. For instance, it could be the case that you would have had to take time off work or undergo treatment even if you received care of an acceptable standard. Your compensation will only reflect how much worse your condition was made by the negligence you experienced than it otherwise would have been.
No Win No Fee Sepsis Medical Negligence Claims
If you are eligible to make a claim for sepsis compensation, you might like to instruct a solicitor to work on your case. If so, one of our solicitors could support your claim. They have lots of experience with sepsis medical negligence claims. Additionally, our solicitors usually work under the terms of a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), which is a type of No Win No Fee arrangement.
If your solicitor works on a No Win No Fee basis, they won’t ask you for an upfront payment for their services. They also won’t take any service fees while your medical negligence claim is ongoing. Furthermore, they won’t charge for their services following an unsuccessful claim.
However, if your claim is successful, your solicitor will be due a success fee. This fee is a small percentage that is capped by the law. It is also taken from the compensation awarded to you.
Our advisors are here 24/7 to help you. They can answer questions about seeking medical negligence compensation and provide you with a free claim evaluation. Additionally, if you satisfy the eligibility requirements, you could be connected to one of our medical negligence solicitors.
To speak with an advisor:
- Fill out our ‘claim online’ form and an advisor will get back to you.
- Call 0800 652 3087
- Use our live chat.
Supporting Resources
Here we have included some extra articles to ensure you have as much information as possible.
- Gall Bladder Surgery Medical Negligence Claims – Have you experienced medical negligence during gall bladder surgery? Our guide explores how you can receive compensation.
- How To Claim For Cancer Misdiagnosis – If you’ve suffered a cancer misdiagnosis that was the result of a breach of duty of care, our article explains how you can make a medical negligence claim.
- How To Claim Compensation For Placenta Left In Womb After Birth – Have you suffered medical negligence during childbirth and had the placenta left in your womb? You may be able to make a clinical negligence claim.
- Symptoms Of Sepsis – This NHS article includes the symptoms of sepsis that you need to look out for.
- Duties of a doctor– The general medical council provides guidance on good medical practice.
- Amputation – Sepsis can sometimes result in an amputation, so this NHS guide includes information such as how amputations are done and why they may be needed.
Guide by Sophie
Edited by Fern