Meningitis girl wins damages action

An eight-year-old meningitis victim won her High Court damages action against a GP who failed to refer her to hospital.

Chloe Langdon was just 10 months old when she contracted meningococcal septicaemia. She now has extensive and disfiguring scarring, a significant leg-length discrepancy and impaired walking with bone and joint destruction around both knees.

Chloe, of Burns Avenue, Exeter, Devon, may also develop cognitive impairment and psychological problems.

Mr Justice Henriques, in London, said that GP David Williams, who was on a duty rota at the Bishops Place Surgery, in Paignton, when Chloe's grandmother brought her in, had "failed to exercise the ordinary skill of an ordinary competent general practitioner in carrying out that consultation".

Damages against his insurers will be assessed at a later date when the long term effect of Chloe's injuries is clear.

The judge said that an admission to hospital on the morning of January 27 2001 would probably have avoided the serious consequences of the disease but, by the time Chloe was admitted that evening, she was extremely ill. He had heard that without the care she received at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, she would probably have died.

Chloe's mother, Natasha Osborne, had claimed that Dr Williams was negligent as Chloe was showing symptoms which, after a scrupulous and careful examination, would and should have required immediate admission to hospital.

Denying liability, Dr Williams said that, while he could not recollect the examination, his notes disclosed no more than a common minor childhood upper respiratory tract infection. He said that if Chloe had been in the condition described by her grandmother, he could not have failed to observe and note those symptoms and to act upon them.

Ruling in Chloe's favour, the judge said that he found the grandmother's evidence "consistent and transparently honest" and that her apprehension as to Chloe's health was well founded. He said that he did not believe that Dr Williams took any or sufficient steps to rouse Chloe or handled her sufficiently to assess her responsiveness.

He accepted that the necessary history was given but said that Dr Williams did not have the necessary degree of suspicion which it should have created.

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