Medical Negligence - The Psychological Cost
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is well recognised as a consequence natural and man-made disasters, accidents and assaults. Large sums of money have been ploughed into researching the effects of PTSD on military servicemen who have returned from the horrors of war. However, this condition is not restricted to those who have seen or been involved in catastrophic events. Increasing numbers of plaintiffs making claims for alleged medical negligence are complaining of the symptoms of PTSD. Preventable stillbirths, anaesthetic awareness and other medical accidents are all associated with this condition, yet there are little or no facilities to offer these sufferers support.
The symptoms of PTSD can start immediately or after a delay of weeks or months. The traumas involved can set off a series of chain reactions that can stay with sufferers for a significant amount of time - even years. Many people initially experience symptoms of anxiety, grief, depression, guilt and anger after a traumatic event. If PTSD becomes manifest, it can display itself through three categories of psychological stress:
1) Flashbacks and nightmares. These can occur during sleep or during full consciousness and can be triggered by seemingly innocuous events. Sufferers can experience images in the mind, but these can also be experienced as a full sensory perception.
2) Avoidance and numbing. Sufferers can try to avoid any situations or people that remind them of their trauma, resulting in emotional desensitisation and withdrawal.
3) Hypervigilance. This is the sensation that the trauma could occur again at any moment, often leading to permanent anxiety and sleeplessness.
Treatment for PTSD takes many forms, but the most common is counselling. Discussing the event and its consequent effects on the sufferer can help to reduce symptoms. In addition, many counsellors offer coping strategies to their patients, giving them a way in which to manage their symptoms to a degree that they do not interfere in everyday life. Early support and intervention has been found to be more effective than waiting for symptoms to become untenable.
However, with the NHS making sweeping reforms to cut costs, counselling is almost impossible for sufferers to receive. Unfortunately, there are many cases where PTSD has led to suicide - which could possibly have been avoided had counselling been made readily available.
While litigating against a professional or healthcare body can provide some financial compensation, it simply does not address the core of the matter. Remuneration is generally awarded to cover the costs of further treatment pertaining to the injury, such as the use of specialist equipment or the use of expensive medicines. It does not, however, offer recompense in terms of helping the claimant overcome the psychological side effects of their trauma. In part, this might be because of the increasing numbers of PTSD symptoms that are faked in minor personal injury claims, such as whiplash.
Until serious consideration is given to those who suffer PTSD as a direct result of medical negligence, sufferers are left either to pursue counselling at their own cost, or for it to remain untreated until the symptoms become untenable and a further tragedy occurs.
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