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Lankan doctor wins 335,000 pounds from NHS
Kumudu Rupasinghe
A ‘brilliant’ doctor whose husband died after medics at her hospital failed to spot the signs of heart failure has won £335,000 compensation from the NHS.
Rohan Rupasinghe died from a massive heart attack at the age of just 33 when staff at Watford General Hospital did not detect his life was in danger in 2010.
His wife Kumudu, 38, worked as an A&E locum at the hospital while she trained as a consultant, the High Court heard.
And she ended up suing West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, who admitted negligence and have now been ordered to pay her £335,000 in damages. Mr Justice Jay said the ‘intellectually brilliant’ parents-of-two, from St Albans, Hertfordshire had a ‘tightly-knit family life’.
The court heard that the Mrs and Mr Kumudu – an engineer – had glittering careers when he died.
Gordon Bebb QC, for Dr Rupasinghe, told the judge her husband ‘died as a result of the NHS Trust’s admitted breaches of duty.’
He had a family history of heart trouble and had displayed worrying signs during examinations and ‘abnormal electrocardiograms,’ the barrister added.
Medics should have realised that Mr Rupasinghe’s heartbeat could be erratic and that he was at risk of suffering sudden cardiac failure, the court heard. Mr Rupasinghe was the family ‘breadwinner’ and a ‘hands on father who shared child minding duties’. And Mr Bebb said he should have been fitted with an ICD, a type of pacemaker, which would have saved his life.
Dr Rupasinghe’s hopes of becoming a consultant specialising in acute medicine were destroyed by her husband’s death, the court heard.
With two young children to look after and a gruelling job as an A&E doctor, it was impossible for her to continue on her chosen career path, said the QC.
Mr Bebb told the judge: ‘Dr Rupasinghe was likely to be a consultant in her chosen speciality by 2019 when she would be aged 41.’
Had it not been for her husband’s death, she would have been earning six figures by the time she was in her 50s, he added.But the QC said: ‘Between them, she and her husband would have managed child care duties. The death of Mr Rupasinghe brought an end to all these plans.
‘Hiring nanny care would have meant ceding childcare of a three year old and a baby to a stranger at prohibitive cost.’
Her husband’s death had left her heavily out of pocket, but Mr Justice Jay ruled that the law did not allow her to claim for her own lost earnings.
She and her children, aged nine and six, were however entitled to compensation for their bereavement and ‘loss of dependency’ on their husband and father.
In the witness box, Dr Rupasinghe had told the court: ‘My dream was to be a consultant.’
(c) Daily Mail, London Â