In May 2024, a few months after having treatment for a brain tumour, Oli Coppock went to Warrington Hospital's emergency department with bad headaches and dizziness. He underwent tests and assessments, but did not have a brain scan, and was sent home. It was a decision that ultimately ruined his life at the age of 32, his family says.
A week later, with fluid building up on the brain, he suffered a cardiac arrest. He did not recover and now lives in almost complete paralysis. Oli's case is just one of a growing number of clinical negligence claims being made in England relating to A&E care.
An analysis by the BBC shows there has been a 41% rise in cases over the past five years, with doctors linking it to the long delays and pressures being seen in emergency departments. Oli's father, Stephen, says he knows A&E staff are under pressure, but he cannot understand how a brain scan was not ordered, given his son's medical history. Despite the brain tumour and a recent diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, Oli was otherwise fit and well and positive about his future.
He had a career in digital marketing, loved going to the gym and did some DJing in his spare time. Stephen says the whole family – including Oli's six siblings - has been left "angry and broken" by what happened to him. "The hospital didn't get the basics right and my son has paid a terrible price – it's ruined his life.
He trusted the health service and believed it was there to help him, not destroy him." He says Oli's body is now twisted and paralysed and he has no ability to move around. His breathing, feeding and toileting are all done through tubes at the neurological rebab centre where he is being cared for. He can only communicate through blinking, but Stephen believes he understands everything going on around him.
"There is no worse space for a human to occupy – it's a permanent living nightmare." North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Warrington's A&E, has now accepted a breach of duty in not ordering a CT brain scan, which on the balance of probabilities would have identified the fluid build-up in his brain and led to surgery to address it. In a statement, the trust said: "We are deeply sorry that Mr Coppock did not receive that standard of care that should be expected and we recognise the distress and lasting impact on patients and their families when harm is caused." An interim damages payment has been agreed. However, Oli's solicitor, Tanzeela Aslam, head of medical negligence at Express Solicitors, says the time taken to get to this point – more than two years – has just added to the failings, depriving him of access to funds for therapies and support that could have improved his quality of life.
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