Seven figure settlement for man burned in care home fire

Steven has Prader Willi Syndrome (PWS) and autism and has been in residential care since aged 19, receiving one-to one waking hours support. At the time of the fire, he lived in a dedicated care home for people with PWS in Cambridge that is owned and managed by the Home Farm Trust.  

PWS is a rare, complex genetic disorder that causes a range of challenges including low muscle tone with consequent motor developmental delays, a mild to moderate learning difficulty, and emotional and social immaturity. It affects both males and females from birth and throughout their lives.

People with PWS commonly experience an overwhelming and insatiable chronic appetite that needs to be controlled with rigorous food plans and exercise regimes.

For Steven, it is imperative that he is monitored carefully as he will try his best to get hold of food. This is even more important when he is out in the community where he is known to go into people's coat pockets in the gym or pick up items in shops when his support worker is not looking.

Because of Steven's complex needs, his mother made it clear to the care home manager that he needed careful monitoring. She also gave details about incidents involving fire or burning at previous residential unit.

Within a month of Steven moving into the Home Farm Trust care home he managed to obtain a lighter and set fire to a bathmat. This incident was not formally reported and the risk assessments were not updated. 

The House Manager later explained that she had updated staff verbally and that changing the risk assessment would not have changed anything in practice. Worryingly, Steven's mother was not immediately informed of the incident.

A few days before Steven's catastrophic accident, he noticed another lighter on the sofa in the sitting room - it was brightly coloured, and he was drawn to it thinking it might be a toy. He told his support worker about his discovery, but the lighter was not removed.

Steven is fascinated with how objects work and on an evening in July 2017 he took the lighter to his bedroom to examine its mechanisms. While doing so he managed to set fire to his bedding and his clothes.

Another resident heard Steven's screams and alerted the staff.  At sound of the fire and smoke alarms, his bedroom door should have automatically opened but instead they automatically locked and Steven was trapped in his room. 

Staff tried to the fingerprint unlocking mechanism, followed by a key fob, but both failed.  Finally, they located a manual override key and got into the room and rescued him. Meanwhile, Steven sustained 25% burns to his upper body, 20% of which were third degree burns.

He was in intensive care for four weeks, and in hospital for a total of six weeks undergoing painful surgeries and treatments. When he was discharged home, it took approximately eight months to find a new residential placement.

During this time his mother cared for him and changed his dressings multiple times a day. Skin picking is another common aspect of PWS and Steven continually tore off his dressings and scratched his wounds.

Thankfully for the past six years Steven, who is now 31, has been in a placement where he feels happy and settled, but he remains extremely traumatised by his accident. He struggles with seeing fire and is becomes very distressed if he smells smoke.

He wakes with night terrors, has recurring nightmares and still picks at his wounds. Seven years on from the accident many of his wounds have not yet healed and despite further skin grafting, his recovery is not progressing as expected.

Liability in the claim against the care home was denied, although the defendants admitted a delay "of seconds" in reaching Steven due to the door defect.  They advised that this "short delay" made Steven's burns worse by around 25%. 

Interim payments that would have allowed his mother to get help for his burns and psychological treatment were not forthcoming.  Even once a case manager was instructed, the defendant still refused to release funds to put her recommendations in place.

The issue as to how Steven came to be in possession of the lighter was also disputed. Steven's mother told staff at the care home to search him regularly and make it like a game so he felt comfortable, but they refused to do so despite there being Deprivation of Liberty Order in place.  

After extensive investigations, Emma and Nick secured liability evidence that confirmed that the fire safety mechanism on Steven's bedroom door was defective and that concerns about existing fire safety systems were raised months before he moved in. The experts also confirmed that risk assessments were not properly updated after the first fire incident. The door should have automatically unlocked as soon as fire was detected.

Evidence showed that Steven would continue to need treatment to his burns in the future, especially as his wounds were still not healing. Tissue viability input was recommended to treat his wounds. He was now likely to need more care, as he was having to return to the family home more due to his night terrors and outbursts.  Art therapy had helped in the past and was again recommended,

The defendant disputed the need for tissue viability input, highlighting that wound care could be sought in the community on the NHS. They advised that due to Steven's PWS, he would always have needed a high level of care, regardless of the accident, and they disputed the need for private art therapy.

The parties were some distance apart in the quantum assessment of the claim, but eventually agreed at a Joint Settlement Meeting on a seven figure settlement that will allow Steven to receive the treatment and support he so desperately needs. As Steven is a protected party the settlement will be subject to approval by the Court.

Following the settlement, Steven's mother said: "The lawyers at Fieldfisher worked tirelessly over a number of years to ensure that we achieved the best outcome possible. Even when our confidence dipped when HFT maintained they weren't liability for the injuries that were sustained, Emma and Nick forged ahead with the case. They always had our best interest at heart.

"Cambridgeshire (the local authority) soon after the incident established a finding of "negligence" on the part of HFT which gave us the impetus, as a family, to pursue a claim and Fieldfisher came recommended. They certainly live up to their reputation."

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