Harry Lambert Wins Damages For Stroke Victim In 3-Day Clinical Negligence Trial

After a hotly contested trial, Harry Lambert has won damages for his client, Ms Dakin, after South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was found in breach of duty which lead to her suffering a stroke.

Harry Lambert acted for the claimant in Dakin v South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in a complex hearing 3-day hearing in April heard by HHJ Robinson, BEM.

Ms Dakin suffered a stroke on 21 July 2016, caused by atrial fibrillation (“AF”). Earlier that year, she had been seen by Dr Quinn at Friarage Hospital with symptoms including palpitations and episodes described as panic attacks. The Trust admitted that Dr Quinn should have arranged a 24-hour ECG monitor, and that failing to do so was negligent. The central issue to this claim was therefore causation and, in particular, whether the stroke was avoidable. At the heart of that issue was the question of how many of Ms Dakin’s symptoms were attributable to AF and whether or not they would have been picked up by 24 hour or 7 day cardiac monitoring.

A substantial part of the judgment also concerns the proper approach to evidence where a defendant’s negligence has deprived the claimant of the best evidence. Relying on Keefe, Jah and Younas, the judge held that the claimant still bore the burden of proof, but that her evidence should be assessed benevolently and the defendant’s case critically, because the missing ECG evidence resulted from the defendant’s breach. The judge further distinguished Gestmin, warning against over-reliance on contemporaneous records in a clinical negligence case involving lay descriptions of symptoms, particularly where those symptoms had been filtered through a mistaken anxiety-focused interpretation.

The judge concluded that the claimant’s episodes were, on balance, caused by Atrial Fibrillation, not anxiety, ectopic beats, sinus tachycardia or other suggested alternatives put forward by the Defence. He accepted that anxiety featured in the records, but found it was more likely a reaction to frightening cardiac symptoms than their primary cause.

On causation the Judge held that a 24-hour monitor would probably not have diagnosed PAF, because the episodes were not established to be occurring daily by that stage. However, a negative 24-hour result would likely have led to 7-day patient-activated monitoring, given the persistence and progression of symptoms.

Crucially, the judge found that Ms Dakin was sufficiently familiar with the episodes to activate a monitor during one of them. On the balance of probabilities, a 7-day recorder would therefore have captured the heart arrythmias.

The judge therefore held that the breach of duty caused the stroke and entered judgment for Ms Dakin, and the matter will now proceed to an Assessment of Damages.

Find Out More

Harry Lambert is a Barrister and Coroner specialising in the areas of product liability, clinical negligence, and human rights law. He is also renowned for his expertise in group litigation claims relating to these areas. He has a heavyweight Clinical Negligence practice encompassing claims in, inter alia, the fields of neurosurgery, paediatrics, obstetrics, orthopaedics and cardiology.

To find out more, contact Paul Barton on +44 (0)20 7427 4907 or Ben Fitzgerald on +44 (0)20 7427 4945

News 12 May, 2026