Actress Leslie Ash has won a record compensation payout of �5m after contracting MSSA (Methicillin-Sensitive Staphylococcus Aureus) at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in
2004.
Ms Ash, who now walks with a stick, was admitted to hospital after suffering two cracked ribs, after falling off her bed onto a table during a love-making session with her husband, Lee Chapman, the retired footballer.
The payment includes compensation for money she would have earned had she carried on working.
Janice Gardner from Russell Cooke solicitors, who is Ms Ash’s lawyer, said the actress was “delighted that we could reach an amicable settlement.”
A spokesperson for the Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust said there were shortcoming’s in Ms Ash’s care when she was a patient, and apologised. The hospital had “learnt from its mistakes, it said.”
Steve Walker, chief executive of the NHS Litigation Authority, said that the compensation was “high because she was earning a lot of money before this happened.
“Most of the value of the award in either past loss of earnings or prospective future loss of earnings.”
Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust
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