Category: Intensive Care

Patients treated in an intensive care unit (ICU) often have complicated and life-threatening conditions, which may require treatments that are often invasive and sometimes potentially dangerous. Not surprisingly, adverse events are frequent and may lead to a claim for medical negligence. As well as an increase in mortality, patients may be left with long-standing health […]

A hospital-acquired infection (HAI) is any infection that originates from a stay in a medical facility. HAIs occur frequently and represent the most common adverse event among hospitalised patients. The highest incidence is seen in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU): nearly 10% of patients who spend two or more days in an ICU will develop […]

Sepsis is a relatively common condition which has very high rates of both morbidity and mortality. In recent years, there has been a significant rise in sepsis-related hospital admissions, both in the UK and other countries. This is thought to be due to a combination of better reporting, an ageing population who are more vulnerable […]

COVID-19 is caused by the highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 virus, which emerged in China in late 2019. It has since spread around the globe, becoming a major public health issue which has had a severe effect on health care provision in many countries. COVID-19 primarily affects the lower respiratory tract (COVID pneumonitis) and the initial symptoms […]

In the majority of medicolegal cases, the outcome is dependent on the opinions expressed in experts’ reports. Therefore, these must be based on high quality evidence, particularly in cases where the questions surrounding breach of duty, causation and the damage sustained by the claimant are complex. Furthermore, once a case has gone to court, it […]

In medicolegal cases, it is rare for the legal teams involved to have sufficient specialist knowledge to make a judgement on the medical issues raised by a case. Therefore, they rely on medical experts to provide them with advice. It is the duty of the medical expert to provide the court with an objective and […]

The intensive care unit (ICU) is a complex environment and the patients being treated in it often have complicated needs that require invasive and potentially dangerous interventions. Therefore, it is not perhaps surprising that adverse events are fairly common in this setting and the consequences of these can be potentially serious for the patient (1–3). As […]

Dr Martin Stotz explores 4 different aspects of intensive care medicolegal work. About Dr Stotz Dr Stotz is a Consultant in Intensive Care and Anaesthesia at St Mary’s Hospital in London, where he leads a multi-disciplinary team. Find out more about his experience and download his CV here: https://www.medicolegal-partners.com/our-experts/dr-martin-stotz. The Thought Leadership Series:

The UK Sepsis Trust estimates that every year about 250,000 people in this country develop sepsis, of whom around 25,000 are children. Five people die from the disease every hour and around 25% of survivors develop permanent life-changing effects from the disease. Furthermore, there appears to have been a sharp rise in sepsis-related admissions to […]

Every year in the UK, over 270,000 adults are admitted to an intensive care unit. For the majority of patients, treatment is successful but the Department of Health estimates that around 10% of hospital inpatient admissions gives rise to an adverse event. Depending on the seriousness of the incident and the outcome for the patient, […]

An intensivist, also known as an intensive care unit (ICU) or critical care physician, provides specialist care for critically ill patients. This is usually within the setting of an ICU in a major hospital, where there will be access to many investigative specialities, such as radiology and laboratory testing. The aim of an ICU is […]

A key part of life as a doctor in any discipline involves assessing a situation and deciding on the right course of action – in many specialties this involves considering whether a treatment can make a patient better. In intensive care, there are difficult decisions to be made that are literally life and death and, […]