C seeks damages for psychiatric injury, with consequential loss and damage. It is accepted that he does so as a secondary victim. As a result, it is common ground that in order to succeed he needs to satisfy the control mechanisms derived from Alcock v South Yorkshire Police [1992] 1 AC 310. [3]
C founds his claim solely on what he saw and was told on his first visit to see Benjamin in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (“NICU”) at the RUH on the morning of 5 May 2016. [9]
what happened to C was “horrifying”. He had been waiting for the birth of his second child, what should have been a joyous event, and instead he was told that Benjamin was seriously unwell and might die. That would be a nightmare for any parent. But from time to time such things happen, with or without clinical negligence, and hospital staff have to prepare the parents and allow them to see their damaged child. Fortunately it is a rare occurrence. [39]
it was not an objectively shocking and horrifying event in the Alcock sense. [40]
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