Nurse who almost died from Covid is suing the NHS for negligence

A nurse who almost died from Covid-19 is suing the NHS for negligence and failing to provide her with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).

Rebecca Firth spent 21 days in intensive care and almost a month on a ventilator after suffering three cardiac arrests, sepsis and multiple organ failure as a result of coronavirus infection.

The 42-year-old was so weak that she needed a wheelchair to get around after being discharged from hospital.

Ms Firth is currently seeking compensation from Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, claiming she contracted the virus from patients at Dewsbury and District Hospital in March 2020, just before the start of the pandemic.

The mother of one accuses the trust of negligence, alleging that it failed to provide her with a safe place and a safe work system and failed to provide her with appropriate personal protective equipment, giving her only a paper mask in return.

In papers filed with the High Court, her legal team also accuses the trust of failing to tell Ms Firth she should have shielded at home until it was too late.

“Her case was terrible.”

Her legal team at Taylor & Emmet Solicitors in Sheffield said: ‘She contracted Covid-19 while… done to her.

“(Rebekah’s) Covid-19 case was particularly terrible. She was admitted to hospital by ambulance on April 7, 2020, where two hours later she was transferred to the intensive care unit, where she spent 21 days in intensive care, 29 days on a ventilator, after which she experienced three cardiac arrests, a blood transfusion, sepsis and multi-organ failure. “

Ms Firth, from Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, also accuses the trust of “failing to bear in mind that, due to her particular vulnerability, she was at risk of serious and potentially life-threatening complications if she contracted Covid-19”.

The nurse brought a claim in the local county court seeking £50,000 in damages, but her claim has now been transferred to the Royal Court of Justice in London, where the potentially most costly and complex cases are heard.

Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust disputes her claim, saying she returned to work after two weeks isolating at home with her daughter, who contracted Covid at school.

She also denied that she was not provided with appropriate personal protective equipment.

Ms Firth, who uses the surname Usher at work, claims she should have protected herself as she was clinically vulnerable to thyroid disease, gastric bypass surgery and heart disease, and had recently suffered from norovirus and flu.

But she claims her requests to shield were ignored and that on April 1 and 2 she worked double shifts on Ward 11 at the hospital, where two patients had been transferred from Pinderfields Hospital, where a number of Covid-19 patients were being treated.

Although both patients were not tested for Covid-19, the results were deemed negative and she was closely involved in their care, her legal team states.

Ms Firth began experiencing symptoms of Covid-19 on April 5 and both patients subsequently tested positive for Covid-19.

They have suffered from the devastating effects of the disease and its associated complications and are seeking compensation for their pain, suffering and loss of amenities.