Errors made by Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust have been revealed after a Freedom of Information Request was made.

The Hull Daily Mail investigated how many medical negligence claims were made against the trust in the last five years. In total 72 were made, with a reported 17 of these being successful.

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is responsible for Castle Hill Hospital, Hull Royal Infirmary, and numerous other medical sites. Mistakes that resulted in claims being made include patients undergoing surgery on the wrong body part, and patients having swabs or instruments left inside them after surgery. On top of this, 154 patients are reported to have been given the wrong drugs by medical professionals.

The 17 successful claims resulted in £672,631 in compensation settlements being paid to those affected. The money is paid out by the NHS Litigation Authority to which the Trust pays a premium each year dependent on their performance and perceived risk.

A spokesperson for the Trust told the paper that every incident is thoroughly investigated, and lessons are learnt from all mistakes.

It is also reported that surgeons were disciplined, ordered to retrain or in some cases sacked by the Trust after making serious errors.

A man suffered months of distress after hospital staff left an 18 inch swab inside him after an operation.

Ian Smith underwent a surgical procedure at Sandwell Hospital whilst he was suffering from bowel cancer. After the operation he felt a lot of pain, but put this down to normal surgery pains.

However, just weeks after the surgery, his surgery wound began to leak liquid and he was rushed back into hospital. Medical staff still did not find the swab despite Mr Smith undergoing x-rays, and being in hospital for a week.

In fact, the swab was only discovered seven months after the accident, when a piece of the swab was spotted by a district nurse protruding from the wound. The large swab was then later removed at hospital.

The Birmingham Mail reports that Mr Smith and his wife complained to the Patient Advice Liaison Service about the treatment he had received. After an investigation they received an apology from Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust. The paper reports that the NHS Litigation Authority is in negotiation with Mr Smith’s solicitor regarding a surgical error claim.

Retaining a foreign object (such as a swab) post-operation is described by the Department of Health as a “never event”. This means that is a serious and preventable safety risk that should not occur if correct measures are followed.

A man who suffered serious cut to his hand in an accident at work has received compensation of over £10,000.

Craig Dunwell was working for Fluestax Ltd when the incident occurred. The company designs and installs flues, and Mr Dunwell was working on one of these installations at a school in Leeds.

The flue that was being fitted was a temporary measure, and therefore one of the dangerously sharp edges on it had not been smoothed down properly. Mr Dunwell severely cut himself on this edge and severed a nerve to the little finger of his right hand.

The injury meant that he had to take three weeks off work, and still had difficulty working with his hands after this. He was later made redundant by the company.

The Yorkshire Evening Post is reporting that Mr Dunwell made a compensation claim against the company which has just been settled out of court. His team successfully argued that the sharp edge should have been made safe and that he should have been provided with protective gloves to be used whilst touching the flue.

The company admitted liability for his injuries and a compensation settlement of £10,250 has been agreed by all.

A trainee teacher suffered serious personal injury after tripping over roadworks outside a primary school.

Lisa Kelly was walking alongside Priory Road in Davington – close to the local school – on her way to the shops. However she came across roadworks that were involved in a gas repair.

She reports to This is Kent that there was equipment left all across the floor, and no sign of any workmen about even though it was 9:30 in the morning. An extremely slippery metal board was blocking the pavement, so she was forced to find a path through the strewn equipment.

Unfortunately, while doing this she tripped over a piece of equipment and fell. She banged her head hard in the fall and was knocked unconscious. Luckily a passer-by saw the incident and called an ambulance for her. She received treatment at hospital for her facial injuries, but now suffers from memory loss and blurred vision.

Now it is being reported that she is considering seeking public liability compensation from Southern Gas Networks who were running the repairs. She reports to the newspaper that the case is a matter of principle not money, as the incident was so close to a school a child could have been seriously hurt.

A plumber suffered acid burns to the face in a devastating work accident in Heywood.

Neil Kelly was working for City Response Ltd at the time of the accident in December 2009. The property maintenance firm had sent him to a domestic property to unblock a sink.

While at the house, he decided to use the sink un-blocker chemical which is 96% sulphuric acid. With the chemical down the plug hole, he turned on the tap and the water caused an exothermic reaction with the acid.

The acid chemical erupted from the sink with enough force to hit the ceiling. It then rained down on top of Mr Kelly, causing him serious injury. It burnt through his paper overalls and burnt his face, neck and arms. The injuries were so severe that he needed two months off work to recover. Many people who are injured so severely at work are eligible to make a burn injury compensation claim.

The company has just been found guilty of failing to control hazardous chemicals at work and has been fined £5,000. This was because they failed to provide adequate protective clothing and failed to train Mr Kelly in the use of the acid based un-blocker.

A West Midlands scout group has been ordered to pay a personal injury compensation claim payout of over £7,000 to a former scout who injured his shoulder while playing a game in the dark at a scout camp.

Mr Barnes who was 13 at the time was attending a West Midlands scout hut, caused a severe injury and trauma to his shoulder, whilst playing a game that is called object in the dark in 2001.

‘Objects in the dark’ is played by players running around a room that has a pile of objects in the middle which is one less than the amount of players. The lights are then turned out and the players run in the middle as fast as they can to pick up an object, who ever doesn’t get an object is out of the game.

It is said that Mr Barnes who was then the captain of a county rugby team, suffered his personal injury when he slid into a bench after trying to get one of the objects. It wasn’t revealed until 2007 when an MRI scan showed the that Mr Barnes had a permanent impaction injury which could be dated back to the personal injury received in the scout hut

The Scout Associatation was made to pay the £18,000 legal costs and the costs of the country court hearing, as well as paying Mr Barnes £7,322 in personal injury compensation for his injury.

A husband devastated by the loss of the love of his life, told how his work clothes were responsible for her death.

The couple had three children, six grandchildren and one great grandchild and had been married for 47 years. John Moaby said when they found out his wife Yvonne who sadly died aged 66, was dying from the asbestos related illness mesothelioma he was devastated and described his wife as the nicest woman in the world and kind hearted.

It was said that Yvonne was struck down with a suspected chest infection in January last year, but further tests revealed tiny asbestos fibres which they believe came from John’s overalls.

Mr Moaby said when he returned from work his wife Yvonne would hand wash or shake out his clothes before laying them ready for the following day.

The devastating news was broken to the couple in April and they begun to seek action for an industrial disease compensation claim, so they could enjoy the last few months together.

Mr Moaby worked for the Southern Electricity Board installing heaters in the 1960s, the company accepted responsibility and paid an interim payment of £50,000 which is likely to go up and be finalised by the early months of next year.

In 2007 a health and safety engineer plunged about 30 feet to his death, when he fell through a skylight on an inspection of a roof safety system.

Paul Voller, of Blidworth, was working for Nottingham safety testing firm, First Testing Ltd, who had recently won the contract for all B&Q stores. Mr Voller was doing a routine inspection of the roof safety system at a B&Q store in Bradford, when the accident at work occurred.

It was discovered after Mr Voller was found, that the safety harness each engineer has was still attached to his lanyard, which is usually the position when working on the ground not up high.

It was said in court that because of the new contract the firm had recently won, it was the first time any of its staff had been onto the roof of any of the stores and therefore not much was known about the roof layout, including where abouts the skylights were and how many there were.

First Testing Ltd, pleaded guilty to a number of offences including failure to ensure the welfare, health and safety of its employees, for example Mr Voller’s accident at work for which they were fined £12,000. Not carrying out a suitable risk assessment to other people, while work is carried out which they were fined £2,500 for.

The Nottingham based firm also pleaded guilty to not having their staff properly trained in rescue procedures and making on the fly unrecorded competency assessments of their employees.

It was said by the Judge of the case that although the issues that had arisen didn’t cause Mr Voller’s accident, they still increased the chances of more accidents happing.

In the UK the number of car accidents is going up all of the time, and now Admiral, a popular car insurance company in the UK has just released figures stating that over 400,000 accidents occur every year that involve rear end collisions.

The figures reveal that 1 in 4 of all road traffic accidents, which occur in the UK involve some sort of rear end collision.

For most of these accidents the personal injury compensation claims usually involve whiplash injury claim. Whiplash is the most common type of injury you are likely to get if you have been involved in a rear end collision.

The managing director of Admiral has stated that many of these accidents could be avoided if we left more room between our car and the car in front.

“Where traffic is so slow moving, people tend to get irritated and drive a little too close. By doing this there is a higher chance that they will bump the car in front.”

Whiplash injuries can take quite a while to settle down and can be very painful, you may also be left with some sort of permanent damage as a result of this type injury, so making a personal injury compensation claim is essential.