Parents of tragic Girvan girl want compensation over her death

Mar 12 2010 by Edwin Lawrence, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

THE PARENTS of tragic Lisa Norris now cannot sue the NHS.

For a fatal accident inquiry was this week abandoned on day one.

Experts agreed it was cancer that killed Lisa,16 – not an overdose of radiation treatment.

But Ken and Liz Norris, from Girvan, still intend to claim compensation for suffering caused to their daughter.

Cancer specialist Professor Karol Sikora suggested that Lisa may have survived had it not been for the overdose.

But he revised his view, saying it was a possibility rather than a probability.

And Norris family lawyer Cameron Fyfe pointed out: “Proof in Scots law is based on the balance of probabilities, and that is not enough for the fiscal to proceed with the fatal accident inquiry.

“I think the family are disappointed that Professor Sikora was unable to adhere to his initial view, but they accept that it was not appropriate for the FAI to proceed in these circumstances.”

Mr Fyfe said the Norris family would continue its civil action against NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde over the treatment she was given.

However, they will now seek compensation only for the pain and suffering Lisa went through as a result of the overdose, and not for her death.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday, Procurator Fiscal Lesley Thomson said any disagreement among experts had now been resolved.

She said: “The medical experts who are all in full possession of the facts and the initial differing opinions have ultimately concluded that there is no causal link between the radiation overdose and Lisa’s death.”

Lisa was given a massive overdose at Glasgow’s Beatson oncology unit during radiotherapy treatment for a brain tumour in January 2006.

She died eight months later, and her parents believed 58 per cent too much radiation was to blame.