DOCTOR TO PAY DAMAGES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26040, 2 January 1946, Page 9

DOCTOR TO PAY DAMAGES

SCALDED CHILD’S HAND Damages of £ISOO were awarded bv Mr Justice Croom-Johnson at Carlisle Assizes against a doctor who placed a six-year-old girl’s left hand in boiling water while treating her for a septic thumb-nail. The child, Elizabeth Rose White, of Woodhouse, Whitehaven, Cumberland, sued Dr Hermann Augapfel, of Bolton, Lancashire, for personal injuries and loss by reason of his negligence. Negligence was admitted, and the judge was asked to assess damages. Mr Godfrey Heilpern, for the girl, said that in June last year she was attending Dr Augapfel, who was a temporary assistant at a Whitehaven surgery. She had a septic thumb-nail. The doctor plunged her left hand into boiling water, and despite her frantic screams, held it there for some time.

• When brought out of the water her hand was found to be completely scalded and covered with large blisters. The child was taken to hospital almost unconscious.’’ Mr Heilpern went on. " She was in hospital for five weeks, and was then transferred to an emergency hospital in Cheshire. An extensive skin-grafting operation was carried out and the child was under treatment until October 7 last year. “A medical report states that there is a permanent disability of all the fingers of the left hand. The child is now very much afraid of hot water, and must be assured that her bath water is only warm, and not hot.” Mrs Sarah White, the child’s mother, said that Betty could not now lace up her boots and had to be helped to fasten her clothes. In cold weather the hand went black. Betty had been learning the piano, and her parents had an ambition of a musical career for her. But this was not now possible. Mr Justice Croom-Johnson said the child was likely to be sensitive to this very serious deformity. She was a very pretty child. The judge also awarded £55 and costs to the girl's father.