Kidney donor makes £14m medical negligence claim

A man has claimed High Court damages of nearly £14 million after receiving "catastrophic" injuries after an operation to donate a kidney to his father.

The 38-year-old – who can only be identified as XYZ – was the victim of a medical negligence during operation in February 2008, Mr Justice Spencer, sitting in London, was told.

In the course of donating his right kidney, the man suffered irreversible left kidney failure which meant that he, in turn, needed a transplant from his sister. He had paid "a very great price" in personal injury for assisting his father, said Elizabeth-Anne Gumbel QC.

The judge said that liability was admitted by Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust on the basis that the surgeon, who is the subject of proceedings before the General Medical Council, was not only negligent but to a degree reckless.

The four-day hearing is concerned with the assessment of compensation as the Trust disputes some of the man's claims – including substantial amounts for future loss of earnings and medical expenses.

Ms Gumbel said that the man's motive was to spare his father further dialysis treatment and give him a better quality of life in retirement. "The donation of the kidney was successfully achieved but at a great cost to the claimant who, during the course of the operation, suffered torrential, life-threatening haemorrhaging."

As a result, she added, his own life had been shortened by about 10 years and he had already had to suffer the trauma that his own dialysis involved, considerable health problems and the prospect of future deterioration with the inevitability of another transplant.

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