Charles and Lynn Lowden have launched legal action against Ashington’s Wansbeck General Hospital after an inquest heard how a team of doctors failed to spot their son Charlie had developed the potentially fatal condition.
The 20-year-old became seriously ill just 10 days after undergoing a routine hernia operation at a different hospital in November 2009.
He was rushed into the hospital’s accident and emergency department with agonising chest and back pain and had been vomiting blood.
But despite his horrendous symptoms, medical staff failed to investigate a possible pulmonary embolism – a blocked artery – and discharged him the next day, without further investigation.
Just two weeks later, Charlie, a scaffolder, collapsed at his home in Rosalind Avenue, Bedlington, and died on December 9 2009.
Postmortems found he had died from a huge blood clot which formed in his left leg and travelled to his heart.
During a two-day inquest this week, it emerged how doctors ruled out a blood clot – despite Mr Lowden having undergone recent surgery, having an abnormal blood test and heart scan.
Now, his anguished parents have instructed a solicitor to initiate civil proceedings against Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which manages Wansbeck General Hospital.
Lynn, 52, said: “Nothing has changed at that hospital at all since our Charles died.
“They haven’t learnt by their mistakes and by no means is this finished with as far as we are concerned.
“They have ruined our lives and somebody has got to be made accountable for it. It’s about getting justice for our Charles. The whole system in that hospital let him down.
“It was supposed to help him, but on that day, it collapsed and not one of them did their job properly.”
The Trust carried out its own investigation into Mr Lowden’s death and said it had since reviewed its admissions forms, but had yet to implement new patient discharge procedures.
Ben Gent, of Simpson Millar solicitors, in Gateshead, is representing the family.
He said: “It may be that Northumbria Healthcare Trust now feels that the time is right to accept responsibility for Charlie’s death.
“If not, Mr and Mrs Lowden have given a clear indication that they will be seeking accountability through the court system.”
Chief executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Jim Mackey, said: “We are deeply saddened by the death of Mr Lowden.
“Mr Lowden died of a rare complication of surgery which we have fully investigated.
“The report of this investigation, which we shared with Mr Lowden’s family, highlighted areas of care where we felt we could improve and we have implemented new systems as a result of this.
“Furthermore we are going to include the NEWS (Northumbria Early Warning System) score on the discharge documentation which alerts staff to contact senior medical colleagues when the NEWS score is higher than anticipated for a patient going home.”
Via: www.chroniclelive.co.uk U.K. Edition
Osbaldwick-based Contract Services (Yorkshire) Limited (CSL), which has employed people in York for almost 40 years, is still taking on new business and will continue to trade for as long as it can, said founder Leslie Cullum.
But he said the economic situation and the decline in the construction industry meant that it was not worthwhile carrying the business on in the long term.
He said: “The result is that after 38 years, we are closing the business down in a controlled manner over the next three to four months and maybe longer.
“During that time every contract will be completed and everyone has been issued with redundancy notices. We will endeavour to extend those notices for as long as we find it viable to. We are still looking for business to keep these people employed as long as possible.”
The business, which employs 40 to 50 people, has provided scaffolding for small projects as well as high-profile work for commercial, industrial and heritage organisations, including York Minster’s East Window and the Sadlers Wells Theatre in London.
Mr Cullum said: “We have got some people who have been here for 30 years and the company has been at the forefront of the industry.
“We have given a lot of people a lot of jobs over the years and it’s very sad on my part that we find ourselves in this situation, but it’s the direct result of the economic situation.” 
Roofers, Billy Smith and Ashley Burton, fell more than three metres to the ground below when a scaffold gave way because other workmen began digging a trench near the base of the framework.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted both partners from Select Estates Ltd, of Hurst Green, for breaching the health and safety laws which led to the incident.
Brighton Magistrates’ Court heard a number of roofers at the new housing development in London Road, Hurst Green, were standing on scaffolding between two semi-detached houses. The scaffolding was loaded with tiles.
Down below, in order to install drain and sewer systems, two ground workers began digging a trench next to the foot standings of the scaffold. The standings of the scaffold were undermined by the removal of dirt to create the trench, which slipped into the trench.
As a result of the incident, Mr Smith from Kemsing, Kent, injured his lower back while Mr Burton, from Sevenoaks, Kent, received cuts to his head and tore a muscle in his shoulder. He was off work for two months.
One of the injured men, Ashley Burton, said the incident had affected him deeply and admitted to still being nervous about climbing scaffolding to do his work.
The court was told the incident was caused by a number of parties carrying out their allotted tasks with little regard for others in terms of co-operation and co-ordination.
The scaffold was overloaded with people and building materials and there was no suitable site supervision nor management of the tasks to be undertaken.
HSE’s Inspector Russell Smith said:
“Falls from height are the biggest causes of workplace deaths and it’s crucial that employers make sure work is properly planned, supervised and carried out to protect staff from these risks.”
“In this case, it is extremely fortunate that nobody was killed, however, it could have been so much worse. If there was adequate management of the construction site, this incident could easily have been prevented.”
John Marton, Principal Contractor of Select Estates Ltd of Hurst Green pleaded guilty to regulation 22(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 at court today (15 March). He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,832.
Martin Taylor, Principal Contractor of the same company pleaded guilty to breaching regulation 22(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 at court today. He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,832.
Via: HSE (Press Release) 
People working for Redhall Engineering Solutions (RES) had turned up for work as usual on Tuesday expecting to work at Saltend Chemicals plant near Hull.
But Vivergo Fuels which runs the plant has cancelled the contract with RES saying the project is behind schedule.
RES was unavailable, but the GMB union said the situation was “uncertain”.
Worldwide industrial services and engineered products company Harsco Corporation (NYSE:HSC) announced today new awards from India’s Tata Group that further extend Harsco’s ongoing industrial scaffolding support of facility maintenance at Tata Steel for an additional five years, and add new scaffolding services with Tata Power and Tata Mines. The awards represent combined revenues in excess of $8 million over their terms.
Harsco’s growing support of the Tata Group underscore the Company’s strategic goals for market expansion within India’s industrial sector. Harsco serves Tata Steel at its flagship steelmaking operations in Jamshedpur, where the Company provides round-the-clock scaffolding and powered access services in support of the facility’s plant maintenance and shutdown requirements, a role that the Company began in 2008 and continues to strengthen. In its new roles for Tata Power and Tata Mines, Harsco will undertake similar on-site scaffolding services in support of facility maintenance.
Tata Steel recently honored Harsco with a Best Vendor performance award for the year 2010, recognizing the Company for outstanding safety performance and having achieved “the highest quality of scaffolding standards.”
Harsco Corporation is one of the world’s leading diversified industrial services and engineered products companies, serving industries that are fundamental to global infrastructure development and economic growth including metals, construction, railways and energy. Harsco’s common stock is a component of the S&P MidCap 400 Index and the Russell 1000 Index. Additional information can be found at 
Russell Flook, of Flooks Scaffolding, admitted the health and safety offence at Bristol Crown Court.
The 45-year-old, of Rogers Walk, Bridgeyate, admitted that there was a failure to provide a safe system of work for the firm’s employees while they were working on temporary roofs on October 4, 2006.
The charge included failures to adequately assess the risk of the work and provide adequate training, instruction, supervision and monitoring.
It also included a failure to provide adequate equipment for the work.
The Crown Prosecution Service alleged the failures led to the death of Shaun Stevens, a 41-year-old, married father-of-three, who died 12 days after falling 15ft from a scaffolding structure and hitting his head at the company’s yard in Station Road.
Marcus Tregilgas-Davey, defending, said his client had pleaded guilty on the basis that there was a lack of a written risk assessment, not that “an unsafe method for dismantling the structure was employed”.
He said his client accepted that the safety harnesses being used were inadequate after they had been tested.
Mr Tregilgas-Davey said there was “no causal connection between the breaches and the death”.
He said: “There is a small amount of light between us and where the Crown puts the case.”
The court was told Flook was likely to receive a financial punishment.
Judge Neil Ford asked for further financial information about the firm’s four other partners ahead of sentencing at Bristol Crown Court on April 27.
Via: 
