Medical Negligence Solicitors

Blood Transfusion Error Claims

If a blood transfusion is improperly administered, it can lead to life-threatening complications. In such situations, having expert legal support is essential to ensure you receive the compensation you are entitled to.

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Claims for blood compensation errors

No matter the reason for needing a blood transfusion, you deserve for the process to go smoothly. Whether you lost blood from an injury, needed treatment for a blood-related disorder or have just had surgery, a blood transfusion is intended to boost your recovery.

Unfortunately, complications may arise before, during or after the procedure. Among the most serious, some patients receive the wrong blood type or experience extreme symptoms after their blood transfusion.

While nothing can change the pain caused by a blood transfusion error, making a claim for compensation could give you the resources needed to move on with your life.

No Win No Fee blood transfusion claims

Blood transfusion negligence can happen under various circumstances. It occurs when medical staff – from doctors to researchers – fail in their duty of care for a patient. Whether due to ineffective equipment or lack of skill, human error is one of the biggest risks to patient safety.

In 2022, process errors were responsible for 85% of critical incidents during transfusion procedures. Such mistakes can result in extreme illness or even patient death, despite the fact that at least eight in 10 are preventable.

If you or a member of your family has suffered as a result of blood transfusion errors in hospital, our expert solicitors could help you pursue a claim for the compensation you deserve.

At Been Let Down, we’re experts in helping our clients make claims against medical professionals. This means that, if you decide to go ahead with a claim on a No Win No Fee basis, you won’t pay a penny unless we win your case. We’re here to guide you through the process.

What is a blood transfusion?

A blood transfusion is a routine medical procedure that involves transferring donated blood into someone else’s circulation system. This procedure is vital for patients experiencing various circumstances. It is often needed for:

People who have a shortage of red blood cells
Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or stem cell transplants
Recovery from severe bleeding, often after childbirth, surgery or a serious accident
People with inherited blood conditions or anaemia

In hospitals in England, around two million units of blood are transfused every year.

Blood is taken from healthy volunteers who complete a rigorous health questionnaire. Each donation is screened for infections and contamination; if the donor has recently travelled outside of Europe, further tests may be taken.

About the infected blood scandal

Some of our clients ask us about the infected blood scandal. This serious event of medical negligence spanned from 1970 to the early 1990s. It involved more than 30,000 NHS patients who were given transfusions or treatments with contaminated blood products.

If you or your family were victims of the scandal, you will be entitled to infected blood compensation from the Government. You can learn more about the payments via the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme summary. Compensation is available to people who were infected with either HIV or Hepatitis C after using NHS-supplied blood, plus any affected family members.

Strict standards and inspections now ensure that the risk of receiving contaminated blood in a transfusion is extremely low. However, other complications following transfusions are still commonplace. If an error was made by medical staff, we can help you.

What are the different causes of blood transfusion errors?

The types of blood transfusion errors are still broad and complex, with multiple potential points of origin.

While one patient might experience adverse effects after hospital negligence, another could fall ill at the hands of negligent laboratory staff responsible for correctly labelling life-saving blood. No two cases are the same but a few of the recurring types of blood transfusion mistakes include:

Handling and storage errors

Appropriate storage and transportation ensure positive patient outcomes. Labelling is an important part of this process: if a blood product is labelled wrongly, human error becomes harder to trace until it causes serious consequences.

Blood must also be stored in a refrigerator between 4 and 8 degrees Celsius. When blood fails to be stored correctly or is moved back to the refrigerator after spending too long at a higher temperature, it poses a risk to patients.

Insufficient resources

It’s a time of unprecedented pressure on health services in the UK. Unfortunately, many patients have to wait too long for life-saving procedures like blood transfusions. Where hospitals are stretched thin and cannot care for all patients quickly enough, delays can be lethal.

According to the most recent Serious Hazards of Transfusion Report, 13 patients died due to delays in receiving transfusions in 2022. Delays were the most common cause of deaths related to transfusion.

Wrong blood type transfusion

Receiving a blood transfusion with the wrong blood type is an error of the harshest severity, known in the NHS as a Never Event. Before any patient receives their transfusion, they have a small blood sample taken to check their blood type, and the blood they receive must be identical or compatible.

The wrong blood type can leave patients in a critical condition, causing shock and even death. The patient’s immune system essentially starts to attack itself. If you or a member of your family have encountered this level of negligence, we are confident that you have grounds to make a blood transfusion error claim.

Administration errors

During a blood transfusion, patients must be given the correct volume of blood and other fluids. If medical staff are inexperienced or insufficiently trained or make a mistake in administering blood products, patients can risk serious reactions.

Nurses and doctors must consider patient weight and health, along with the use of diuretics, to prevent fluid overload. Sensitivities to certain antigens, a type of protein found in blood, should also be considered. In extreme cases, patients can die of transfusion-associated circulatory overload.

Why make a claim for blood transfusion compensation?

We encourage you to go ahead with a claim for compensation after suffering blood transfusion errors by nurses, doctors or any other medical professional responsible for your care. Doing so could help you access streamlined support from experts who know how to help you get back on track.

Living with the effects of a transfusion reaction can be painful and confusing. If this procedure is completed incorrectly in any way, you can encounter more serious consequences including:

Transfusion reactions including swelling, pain, chills and fever
Delayed recovery or extreme blood loss
Shock or, in extreme cases, sudden death

The effects of blood transfusion negligence are very serious. If you’ve been unfortunate enough to experience this, please get in touch today for a non-judgemental conversation about starting your claim with our solicitors.

What our experts say about blood transfusion errors

Carla Duprey Solicitor in our Medical Negligence Team says;

Our independent legal team can offer no-win no-fee funding, ensuring you receive the justice you deserve without the financial burden. Trust in our expertise to overcome the complexities of blood transfusion claims and secure you compensation.

Frequently asked blood transfusion negligence claims questions

As with many other types of personal injury claims, you’ll need to make a blood transfusion claim within a certain timeframe.

There are legal time limits. For adults with the capacity to discuss and put forward their case independently, the incident of negligence – or your first knowledge of it – must have occurred no more than three years prior to starting court proceedings.

However, some exceptions may apply. If the person who was exposed to blood transfusion errors is under 18 years old or has reduced mental capacity, it’s possible to claim on their behalf outside of the usual timeframe.

If you’re unsure whether you can still make a claim, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

The final amount of compensation paid will depend on the specific nature of your case. From the circumstances surrounding your blood transfusion to the damage caused as a result of errors made by healthcare staff, all events will be carefully considered when calculating a potential payout.

Our expert medical negligence lawyers use the latest edition of the Judicial College Guidelines and case law to inform compensation payouts. This research indicates an appropriate pay range to award to a wide variety of compensation claim cases.

We make it our mission to award you the maximum amount possible. We understand that the pain and financial loss caused by blood transfusion errors can be life-altering, so that’s why our team explore every option to get you the compensation you deserve.

Once you’ve decided that you’re ready to proceed with a blood transfusion claim, we’ll put you in touch with one of our medical negligence solicitors. We’ll then start the process by:

Collecting and putting together your medical records and evidence of your condition, including photographs, scans and notes. We’ll use these to determine whether negligence was potentially the cause of your suffering.

After that, if we can conclude that the pain, injury, or side effects were directly caused by a blood transfusion error, we will then proceed by:

Drafting a written statement detailing your case and circumstances. With your approval, we then forward it to medical experts for further confirmation and evidence.

Sending a formal Letter of Claim to the accused medical professionals who carried out a negligent blood transfusion, explaining why they are at fault.

Negotiating a fair total amount of compensation for blood transfusion errors made by the defendant if they admit liability.

If the defendant denies liability, or refuses to pay a fair amount of compensation, we will prepare your case for the court.

We know that this can be a daunting process, so we’ll always try to prevent this by winning at an earlier stage. However, in the event that we do proceed to court, you can rest assured that we’ll support you at each stage and provide regular updates.

If you’d like to know more about our team or how we work, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Why choose Been Let Down for blood transfusion compensation claims?

If you’ve decided that you’re ready to go ahead with a transfusion negligence or contaminated blood claim, we’re here to support you through the process. Our team of expert medical negligence solicitors will steer your case to the most successful outcome possible.

Here are just a few of the reasons to choose Been Let Down:

We’re fully certified by the Solicitors Regulation Authority
We take on hundreds of claims on a No Win No Fee That means you won’t pay anything unless you win your case.
Our lawyers are members of the Liverpool Law Society, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers and The Law Society.
As an independent law firm, we handle every case on an individual basis, with the utmost sensitivity to your circumstances.
We believe that each case deserves a tailored approach. Our professionalism is reflected in hundreds of positive client reviews.

Contact us today

If you have been through a difficult time after medical professionals failed to carry out a safe blood transfusion, we can help. At Been Let Down, we believe that you deserve to be compensated fully and fairly for blood transfusion errors.

We’re here to support you through your infected blood or transfusion compensation claims. Please call us on 0800 234 3234 or get in touch online and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

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