NSW Health will shell out an undisclosed sum to an Illawarra family whose father died from septic shock while a patient at Wollongong Hospital.
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The Hintz family successfully sued the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District in the NSW Supreme Court, however the amount of compensation to be paid remains confidential under the terms of the payout.
The claim, lodged on behalf of the three Hintz siblings, one of whom has an intellectual and physical disability, alleged the health district was negligent in its care of their father, Paul Hintz.
He died on January 17, 2014, two weeks after being admitted as a patient.
In a published judgement handed down this week, Justice Christine Adamson said the three siblings lived with their father following the death of their mother in 2010.
The two sons were studying at the University of Wollongong and completing a carpenter apprenticeship while their sister required care from her father with all aspects of daily living before he was admitted to hospital.
The plan was for the sons to live at home for a few more years and the sister would continue to live with her father as long as he was able to look after her, Justice Adamson said.
The siblings' lawyer relied on an expert report from a consultant colorectal surgeon who said Mr Hintz was suffering from bowel obstruction and was in need of surgery which, had it been performed earlier, would have relieved his obstruction, prevented perforation and peritonitis which caused septic shock and cardiac arrest, leading to his death.
The health district claimed the hospital staff acted in "competent professional practice".
The health district provided a report from a geriatrician who said hypothetically had Mr Hintz survived an operation he would have only lived another one to two years.
The report also noted Mr Hintz's physical condition would have been so compromised that he would not have been able to fully care for his daughter and would have required carers of his own.
The siblings' lawyer provided a report which contradicted the geriatrician's assessment.
The court also heard the daughter, who was now living with her grandmother, had struggled with grief and nervous shock following her father's death.
A psychiatrist said the woman preferred not to get out of bed, was "episodically belligerent" and "trashed her room" before recommending she be given 30 to 40 therapy sessions, to take place fortnightly over a period of approximately two years.
The health district offered an undisclosed settlement in response to the proceedings filed under the Compensation to Relatives Act.
The siblings' lawyer recommended the settlement, believing it was "in the best interests" of their clients.
Justice Adamson deemed the offer to be "just" and appropriate.
The settlement was distributed to each sibling for past care and past loss of financial benefits with the daughter, who had the greatest need, receiving the "lion's share of the total damages".
The daughter was also given a separate payout for damages for future treatment expenses for her psychiatric illness as a result of nervous shock.
"I am satisfied that the settlement of the Compensation to Relatives Act claim and the nervous shock claim are in the interests of the plaintiffs and ought be approved by the court," Justice Adamson said.
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