Nurse wins compensation (From Surrey Comet)

Nurse wins compensation

8:44am Wednesday 27th July 2005

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A nurse who was brutally attacked three years before her colleague was killed in a similar assault on the same ward, has won thousands of pounds in compensation from her bosses.

Corinne Clarke was working alone in 2000 on Springfield Hospital's John Meyer ward notorious as the scene of fellow nurse Eshan Chattun's violent death in 2003 when she was attacked from behind.

She had been attempting to raise the alarm after a female patient began beating another, but she herself was then subjected to a sustained assault.

Ms Clarke, then 50, pressed her personal alarm but could not escape before the patient began kicking and punching her, leaving her convinced she was about to die.

Her ordeal did not end with her rescue from her attacker, as the South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust refused to accept liability and negligence.

The five-year battle between the mental health nurse and her employers ended this month when she was awarded £17,013 at Croydon County Court, exactly five years after the attack.

It is the second time this year that the trust has been fined for negligence, after paying out £28,000 in May for failing to protect Eshan Chattun, who was bludgeoned to death by a paranoid schizophrenic.

The trust's chief operating officer Maresa Ness said: "During the incident she activated her personal alarm and other staff arrived to give her assistance. However, her claim was successful at Croydon County Court and she was awarded £17, 013 compensation.

"The trust wishes to point out that this incident happened five years ago, and since then there has been considerable investment in CCTV and other measures, such as wall alarms. Additionally, there has been improved training for all staff dealing with such incidents."

During the case, Ms Clarke attempted to show that the design of the ward left staff vulnerable an issue that came up in the case of Mr Chattun's death years later.

Ms Clarke is still an employee of the trust, but suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, and has had to received counselling, as well as suffering spinal problems.

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