A hospital trust is facing a compensation claim after it was fined £10,000 when a vulnerable patient in its care fell out of a first-floor window and suffered serious injuries.

North East Essex Primary Care Trust admitted breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act after Charles Preston, a partially-sighted 68-year-old, suffered breaks to his shoulder, pelvis and coccyx when he fell.

The incident occurred at the Clacton & District Hospital in March 2008.

Following the court ruling, Mr Preston has announced his intention to sue the trust.

Kim Wicks, the Health and Safety Executive inspector who investigated the case, said the accident could have been avoided.

"The control measures, in this case window restrictors, to prevent this risk are easy to fit and maintain," she said.

Last week, the Herald reported that student Jonathan Harvey was going to sue Plymouth City Council after he fell 20ft through a broken fence on council property.

A man who worked for Morrisons is suing the supermarket chain after suffering horrific injuries in the car park of one of its stores.

Kevin Brookshaw was arriving for a night shift at the Morrisons store in Crewe in December 2006 when the accident occurred, the Crewe Chronicle reports.

As he drove under the car park’s barrier, it suddenly swung forward and crashed through the windscreen of his car.

Mr Brookshaw’s facial injuries were so severe that his wife Pauline did not know him at first. He will never be able to eat or speak properly again and has to be fed through a tube.

"Kevin was literally unrecognisable. His face was entirely split down the middle and covered in blood," Mrs Brookshaw said.

At a recent hearing, Morrisons was fined for breaching health and safety regulations and has admitted liability for Mr Brookshaw’s injuries. It is thought that he will receive a substantial sum in compensation for his pain and suffering.

The supermarket chain said it has since changed the design of the gates on all its stores.

Anyone who is injured on supermarket premises because of the negligence of the occupier may be entitled to make a compensation claim and should seek the advice of a solicitor specialising in personal injury compensation claims.

A widow is considering legal action against an NHS trust after her husband died following an operation.

Joseph Gill, 58, was admitted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in July for a lung cancer operation. However, he was given the wrong medication six times when staff mixed him up with another patient and he fell ill.

Despite this, he was taken in for the surgery to receive part of his lung on July 7th. Complications arose and he died on July 16th.

Eileen Gill, 55, said she blames NHS Grampian for her husband’s death and claims the nurses had called him George and repeatedly given him medication meant for a heart patient.

She is now demanding answers in order to consider pursuing a clinical negligence compensation claim.

"We’ve got a solicitor but can’t do anything until we know what drug he was given," she commented.

A spokesperson for NHS Grampian denied that the medication mix-up had led to Mr Gill’s death but said that lessons had been learnt since the mistakes.

This comes after research from the Care Quality Commission revealed that one in nine of the 392 NHS trusts in the UK performed badly or failed to improve in the last year.

A man is seeking compensation from an NHS trust after his wife died due to a series of hospital blunders.

Claire Joel, 28, was admitted to Medway Maritime Hospital in October last year so that she could give birth to her daughter, Kent News reports.

However, she experienced difficulties and staff did not react quickly enough, failing to administer antibiotics and delaying her emergency Cesarean. Ms Joel died from an infection five days after giving birth to her child.

The coroner’s statement said: "[There were] gross failures to provide the basic treatment and care that her medical condition required and she died from natural causes contributed to by neglect."

Her husband Mark said he is to pursue a compensation claim against Medway NHS Trust.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that patient Toni Dinan is seeking compensation from Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust, alleging that failures in her care led to her baby being stillborn.

A woman whose leg was unnecessarily amputated after doctors misdiagnosed her with cancer has been awarded a six-figure compensation payout.

Doreen Nicholls, 72, found a lump in her foot and was referred to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham in August 2007.

A team of orthopaedic, radiology and histology medics advised an amputation of her leg below the knee after finding symptoms of a particularly aggressive soft tissue cancer.

However, after the grandmother underwent surgery in October 2007, it was discovered that the swelling had not been cancerous after all.

Ms Nicholls sought legal advice and pursued a compensation claim against the hospital. Although it has not admitted liability, it has agreed to a six-figure payout as part of an out-of-court settlement.

"I shall never forgive the hospital for what they’ve done to me. I just want my leg back, money doesn’t mean a thing," the victim remarked.

According to recent research from Imperial College London, as many as one in six NHS patients is currently being misdiagnosed.

A man from Barrow-in-Furness is to be paid compensation after using a vibrating tool at work left him with a permanent injury.

John Sides, 44, was an employee at cleaning products manufacturer Robert McBride and had been using a grinder to remove paint from a floor, the Workplace Law Network reports.

After using the equipment for two days, Mr Sides began to suffer problems with his shoulder and now has permanent symptoms associated with hand arm vibration syndrome (HAVS).

He took legal action against the company because he had not been given any training on how to use the grinder and because his injuries have left him unable to do his decorating job properly.

Robert McBride admitted negligence and agreed to a compensation payout of £17,500.

Spokesman for the trade union GMB Tom Brennan said: "Had his employer taken more care to give him training on how to use the tool correctly to minimise vibration, this accident could have been avoided."

Last month, GP Martin Scurr said in an article for the Daily Mail that anyone who has developed work-related HAVS should look into making a compensation claim because it is a recognised industrial disease.

British people who are involved in car accidents should seek legal advice after a car accident, the Law Society has advised.

Its comments come after it emerged that some insurance firms in Northern Ireland are contacting the innocent parties directly after crashes and offering to resolve the case without getting solicitors involved, BBC News reports.

Alison Donnelly, spokesperson for the Consumer Council, warned this could mean that people involved in accidents are not getting the compensation they deserve.

"Any insurance company that actively discourages consumers from getting this advice is behaving unfairly and should be stopped," she added, pointing out that those involved in crashes are likely to still feel shaken and vulnerable, plus they may not be confident enough to insist on their rights.

Figures from the Department for Transport show that 26,034 people were seriously injured on Britain’s roads last year, while there were also 202,333 minor injuries.

Anyone hurt in a road accident that was not their fault should seek the advice of a solicitor within three years of the accident in order to see if they are eligible to make a compensation claim.

A man who may have gone on to play rugby for his country has been awarded compensation of £80,000 after an injury and a subsequent misdiagnosis cut his career short.

The unnamed man, now 23, suffered a scaphoid fracture to his wrist during a game when he was 16. Although he was taken to hospital in North Devon, medics failed to spot the injury and told him to simply rest.

By the time the fracture was spotted by a GP five months later, further damage had been done and the victim needed a bone graft and three operations.

He lost his chance to play rugby professionally and still suffers from pain in his wrist.

The man decided to pursue a compensation claim because the hospital should have offered an X-ray a week after the accident in order to make sure there was no scaphoid fracture present.

In a new development, the hospital has agreed that it was negligent in not calling him back for further treatment and agreed to a payout of £80,000.

According to Arthroscopy.com, scaphoid fractures must be treated relatively quickly because pieces of broken bone, which are loose inside the wrist joint, will eventually cause a deterioration of the wrist joint called traumatic arthritis if the injury is left.

A woman from Salisbury is to make a compensation claim after tripping on an uneven pavement and breaking a bone in her foot.

Janet Street, 62, told the Salisbury Journal the incident happened because of a drop of one inch in the level of the pavement in Albany Road.

She claimed that the pavement in the area is in a "very bad way".

"My foot is in plaster and I will not be able to work for the next four to six weeks," Mrs Street added.

The sheltered housing worker is now planning to make a compensation claim and has taken photographs of the pavement where the incident occurred to use as evidence.

A recent series of Freedom of Information requests by the Liberal Democrats revealed the extent of the problem of poorly-maintained pavements in England.

The requests revealed that local authorities paid out £82 million to settle compensation claims related to injuries caused by uneven pavements between 2004 and 2009.

Workers who suffer from Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) have been advised to seek legal advice about the possibility of making a compensation claim.

The condition, commonly known as vibration white finger, affects the blood vessels, nerves and muscles in the hands and wrists, leading to numbness and loss of movement, and often causing the fingers to change colour.

It is often the result of working with vibrating tools such as drills and chain saws.

Writing for the Daily Mail, GP Martin Scurr explained that HAVS is a recognised industrial disease, so companies should have health and safety procedures, such as providing gloves and time limits on the use of vibrating machinery, in place.

He added that "negligence is unacceptable" and recommended that anyone who has developed work-related HAVS should look into making a compensation claim.

Last month, Anthony Barry, a former toolmaker from St Helens, received £8,500 in compensation after developing the condition as a result of working with vibrating tools while employed by Ford Motor Company.

Mr Barry said his former employer had not warned him about the dangers of working with such equipment.