UK NEWS
NO INQUIRY AS RADIATION DID NOT KILL TRAGIC LISA
Lisa Norris, 16, 2006 after receiving 19 massive radiation overdoses for a brain tumour
By Rod Mills
THE family of a teenage cancer victim have lost their battle for a fatal accident inquiry after an expert who blamed a radiation overdose for her death changed his mind.
Lisa Norris, 16, died in October 2006 after receiving 19 massive radiation overdoses for a brain tumour, which left her with horrific burns on her neck and head.
It later emerged she was given 58 per cent too much radiation during her treatment at the Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow, and it was feared the blunder may have caused her death.
An internal inquiry found that the teenager, from Girvan, Ayrshire, had died from her tumour and not from the overdose.
However, that was disputed by an independent report from Professor Karol Sikora, one of the country’s top cancer experts.
Her parents, Ken and Liz Norris, announced that they would take legal action after his report concluded that, with the correct treatment, she would have survived for a further five years.
An inquiry was due to begin at Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday, but was scrapped after the professor revised his reports and agreed that there was no link between the mistake and her death.
Lisa’s father, Mr Ken Norris, did not want to comment yesterday, but his lawyer, Cameron Fyfe, said: “We had a report from Professor Sikora, an expert in oncology, who confirmed that Lisa would probably have survived had it not been for the overdose. After further inquiry, the professor revised his report to say it was a possibility, not a probability.
“The family is disappointed that Professor Sikora was unable to adhere to his initial view but accepts that it was not appropriate for the FAI to proceed.”
Last year, the couple branded a decision by the Health Professions Council to let Dr Stuart McNee, the doctor responsible for the blunder, to carry on working a “whitewash”.
The family will continue a civil action against NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the health board which gave Lisa the treatment.
However, they will now seek compensation only for the pain and suffering that Lisa went through as a result of the overdose, and not for her death.
Yesterday, during a 10-minute hearing to wind up the FAI, area procurator fiscal Lesley Thomson said there was no longer any “controversy” surrounding her death.
She told Sheriff Principal James Taylor: “One expert thought there was a link between the accidental overdose of radiation and Lisa’s death.
“However, by mid-February 2010, it was established and agreed that this was not the case.”
A Government report into the error revealed that an under-qualified and under-trained member of staff entered a wrong number on a form.
