Medical Negligence

In the suit, Agnes of Stratton and her husband sought damages from surgeon John Swanlond for breach of contract. Agnes underwent surgery on her severely deformed hand based on the surgeon’s guarantee that he could fully repair it – but afterward, the hand remained mangled. Although the case was ultimately dismissed due to filing errors, it nonetheless established standards of care between a physician and his or her patient.

The applicants in the case were Slovenian nationals, Ivan and Franja Šilih, whose 20-years old son Gregor died in hospital in May 1993. Gregor’s parents believed that his death had been the result of negligent medical practice. They initiated legal proceedings against the hospital and yet even after sixteen years later, the Slovenian courts had still not fully resolved the case. In 2009, the European Court ruled that the Slovenian authorities had failed to set up an effective independent judicial system so that the cause of death of medical patients can be determined. The Court found a violation of the applicants’ right to life.