£12,167 PAID TO YOUTH

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27896, 18 February 1956, Page 2

£12,167 PAID TO YOUTH

COMPENSATION BY HOSPITAL BOARD CLAIM SETTLED OUT OF COURT (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, Feb. 17. Mr J. Grierson, chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, confirmed today a published report that the board had paid compensation of £12,167 18s lOd on a claim for damages incurred by a hospital patient. The patient. Neil Lewis Head, through his father, Lewis Henry Head, claimed £15,000 general damages and £765 15s 4d special damages as a result of amputations to his fingers, alleging that the amputations had been made necessary as a result of ‘‘a wilful or negligent act or omission of some medical practitioner, nurse, or some other person employed by the board.” Neil Lewis Head was aged 15 at the time of radiation treatment he received at the Auckland Public Hospital in 1953. The amputations took place in 1954. Mr Grierson said the board ha 1 agreed with the description of the youth’s physical condition after treatment as set out in the claim, but it denied of negligence and possible future effects to the youth. It was a “matter of Settlement,” he said, and the board agreed to pay £11,500 in general damages and £667 18s lOd in special damages. The board actually paid out only about £3500. the balance being paid by the insurers. This was confirmed by the Supreme Court. Mr Grierson said the matter had been held in committee, but he denied that the board “was hiding something.” The board had thought ‘‘it was not in the public interest” to make any statement at the time. People might have been upset by a report, and some would have felt there would be a risk in sending a patient to the Auckland Hospital, Mr Grierson added.