I went down like a pin at a bowling alley. At the time I knew I had properly hurt my hand. However, the hospital said it was all soft tissue and told me to rest. Nonetheless, the pain didn’t go away and eventually they x-rayed it.
It now transpires I have a scaphoid fracture. Because of the delay I understand my treatment has got a lot more complicated as it was missed by the hospital. My question is whether I can claim for this from the cyclist or not? He was insured through a cycle club I think.
Answer
It is good to note the cyclist was insured as it makes life a lot easier. If he wasn’t, and he did not have any money or assets, etc., you can end up in the scenario where you win your claim, but you don’t get your compensation (or it takes ages to get it).
Regarding the injury and your losses, you do have a claim against the cyclist. However, you are going to need some medical and legal advice as to whether there has been an ‘intervening act’ of medical negligence by the hospital in not x-raying and picking up on the scaphoid fracture.
Medical negligence is basically substandard care that’s been provided by a medical professional to a patient, which has directly caused injury or caused an existing condition to get worse. There’re a number of ways that medical negligence can happen such as misdiagnosis, incorrect treatment or surgical mistakes. If the late diagnosis has resulted in a worse outcome, you may have two claims potentially, one against the cyclist and one against the hospital.
Andrew Prendergast
More Bikes July 2021
