June Greenhorn (A.P.) v. South Glasgow University Hospital Trust [2008] CSOH 128

Proof:- The pursuer underwent a hysterectomy in December 1994 and thereafter developed symptoms of incontinence, for which she received extensive medical treatment. On 26 August 1999 in the course of an operation she suffered serious blood loss, which ceased only after pelvic vessel embolisation had been carried out following an emergency angiography which had revealed leakage of blood from a branch of the right iliac artery. In this action the pursuer claimed that her blood loss was caused by uncontrollable haemorrhage from the branch of the right iliac artery due to one of the doctors who performed the operation having damaged the right ileopectineal vessels as a result of having negligently inserted sutures near those vessels and too laterally deep in the right pelvis and the blood loss resulted in a neurological injury. Here the court applied the test for medical negligence, namely, whether the doctor in question was guilty of such failure as no doctor of ordinary skill would be guilty of if acting with ordinary care, and in particular whether Dr Lingam was professionally negligent in her performance of the colposuspension.