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Woman sues for £150,000 after losing arm to flesh-eating bug

A pensioner who lost her arm to a flesh-eating bug after a paramedic decided not to take her to hospital is suing for £150,000 in damages.

Patricia Austin, 78, started to have pains in her right arm after she had attended an exercise class at a church hall and was told by her GP the next day that she had torn a tendon.

Mrs Austin’s condition deteriorated, but after a 999 call a paramedic diagnosed gastroenteritis and declined to take her to hospital. She was finally admitted to Stoke Mandeville Hospital the following morning, when doctors discovered a streptococcal “flesh-eating” bacteria had been attacking tissue in her arm.

Mrs Austin, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, is suing South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, claiming her limb could have been saved with a different diagnosis by the paramedic and an immediate admission to hospital.

However, the trust is fighting the £150,000 claim, arguing that Mrs Austin had not complained of “excruciating arm pain” and the paramedic’s diagnosis had been a reasonable conclusion.

Richard Baker, for Mrs Austin, told Central London county court the active pensioner had gone shopping without problems after her exercise class on August 8, 2012, but experienced pain in the evening and went to her GP the next day. She suffered vomiting and diarrhoea as the undetected infection spread, and her daughter Julie Newman called 999 on the evening of August 9 and spoke to the paramedic due to her mother’s pain and inability to communicate.

Mr Baker accepted the bug is “an unusual condition”, but argued an admission to hospital that night would have meant “a diagnosis would on the balance of probability have been reached within six hours of her arriving”.

He said Mrs Austin may have still lost some function in her arm but could have had surgery before the limb became “unsalvageable”.

But Bradley Martin QC, for the ambulance service, told the court that the pain in her arm was difficult for all the healthcare professionals she encountered to interpret. “Mrs Austin presented to the paramedic as being unwell, with diarrhoea and vomiting, against a background of having seen the GP having torn a tendon in her right arm. She did not complain to the paramedic of excruciating arm pain, observations were non-concerning.”

He pointed out that even when she was seen by doctors on August 10, 2012, it took around eight hours for surgeons to pinpoint flesh-eating bacteria as a possible source of her pain. “This illustrates how challenging it was in fact to secure the diagnosis and get her to theatre”, he added. The hearing continues.