Bristow v Barts and the London NHS Trust

Facts

The claimant, Mr Aubrey Stretton Edward Bristow, a consultant anaesthetist employed at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, brought a claim for damages for personal injury against Barts and the London NHS Trust arising out of an incident in Theatre 5 on 12 February 2007. It was not in dispute that he fell to the floor unconscious, having just prepared his patient with Betadine disinfectant and drapes before the next stage of inserting a port for use in chemotherapy. The claimant had no recollection of the accident. He relied upon a contemporaneous incident report form — completed in part by Theatre Nurse Nyoni and in part by the management incident handler Katherine Hine — and a subsequent pre-action protocol letter from the NHSLA, as establishing that he had been knocked out by a theatre light manoeuvred by an unidentified nurse assisting him. The defendants accepted that they would be vicariously liable if the accident happened in that way, but contended that the evidence did not establish causation on the balance of probabilities and that the claimant had slipped on Betadine he had himself splashed onto the floor. The claimant accepted that, if that were the cause, no blame attached to anyone but himself. The matter came before the High Court, Queen's Bench Division, for trial on liability.