Payout after medical mistakes left Cristina Malcolm with 10-minute memory

Oct 16 2009 by Laura Caroe, The Journal

Hospital chiefs accepted liability for 95% of the total claim and handed Cristina an interim payment of £150,000 two years ago.

But devastated Sandy described how the mistakes had ripped their lives apart. The 47 year old said: “It is a huge relief as the money will help provide the care and support that Cristina will need for the rest of her life.

“But she has been left permanently brain damaged and will be unable to remember anything for more than 10 minutes. Money will not give her back her life, or her memory. The GP had the symptoms described to him and should have recognised he had a medical emergency on his hands. She is not the same woman I married. I have lost my partner, my best friend and my wife.”

Up to 95% of people who suffer a level five subarachnoid haemorrhage, the most serious kind which Cristina suffered from, die.

“Survivors tend to be left severely disabled or in a vegetative state.

“I have to make all her decisions for her and have to think of everything a normal person would take completely for granted from brushing her teeth to eating. At first I didn’t realise she would never remember again. I took her to Paris for the weekend as I thought she would remember something big. We spent 12 hours there and within 12 minutes of driving out of the city, she said it would be lovely to visit Paris when we were in France.

“One of the hardest things I ever had to tell her was that her father died. I had to tell her 10 or 15 times that her father had died and every time I would get the same reaction. It was heartbreaking.”