John McEwan v. Ayrshire and Arran Acute Hospitals NHS Trust [2009] CSOH 22

Proof:- In this action the pursuer sought damages for losses said to have been sustained by him as a result of medical negligence following his admssion to hospital on 22 April 2002 following a complaint of abdominal pains. He underwent a number of operations at Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock before his transfer to the Glasgow Western Infirmary on 7 May 2002 where he underwent plastic surgery to provide skin cover to his abdomen and reconstructive surgery to his scrotum after a number of complications arose. The principal issue between the parties, on liability, was whether there was at the time a usual and normal practice in respect of examination of the small bowel following release of a band adhesion and, if so, of what that practice consisted, whether the surgeon, Mr Kingsmore, a specialist registrar in the third year of his higher surgical training, and a pre-registration House Officer, did or did not adopt that practice and whether the course which he did adopt was one which no surgeon of ordinary skill would have taken if he had been acting with reasonable care. Here the court considered whether the pursuer had established his case together with the quantification of the claim for the pursuer who was thirty eight years of age at the time of the operations.