This study aimed to analyse the number, nature and costs of successful litigation claims against the National Health Service in England involving fatalities in children. A record of claims involving fatalities in children from 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2011 was obtained from the National Health Service Litigation Authority. The closed cases where compensation had been paid to the claimant were analysed. One hundred thirty out of a total of 234 closed cases (56?%) resulted in payment of compensation. The commonest causes of a fatality were delayed/failed diagnosis (58), delayed/failed treatment (19), complications related to procedures/operations (17), poor overall quality of care (7), medication errors (6), inappropriate medical advice leading to delayed presentation (6) and communication errors (5). The commonest diagnoses involved were sepsis (17), meningitis (11), cardiac defects (8), gastrointestinal illness (8), intracranial bleed (4), meningococcal septicaemia (3) and malignancy (3). The total cost of litigation was ￡8,143,342 with cost per case ranging from ￡1607 to ￡790,555 with a mean of ￡62,641. The death of a child is a tragedy. When an error has occurred, this causes further suffering to the family and to the health care professionals involved. Conclusion: This data suggest areas where training could be improved, and by learning from such errors we can diminish such occurrences in the future and improve patient safety.
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机译：这项研究旨在分析针对英格兰国家卫生局（National Health Service）的涉及儿童死亡的成功诉讼请求的数量，性质和成本。从国家卫生服务诉讼局获得了2004年4月1日至2011年3月31日涉及儿童死亡的索赔记录。对已向索赔人支付赔偿的结案案件进行了分析。在总共234起结案中，有130起（占56％）支付了赔偿金。死亡的最常见原因是诊断延迟/失败（58），治疗延迟/失败（19），与程序/操作有关的并发症（17），整体护理质量差（7），用药错误（6），医疗不当导致延迟陈述（6）和沟通错误（5）的建议。涉及的最常见诊断是败血症（17），脑膜炎（11），心脏缺陷（8），胃肠道疾病（8），颅内出血（4），脑膜炎球菌败血症（3）和恶性肿瘤（3）。诉讼总费用为8,143,342英镑，每宗案件的费用从1607英镑到790,555英镑不等，平均费用为62,641英镑。孩子的死亡是一场悲剧。当发生错误时，这会给家庭和所涉及的医疗保健专业人员造成进一步的痛苦。结论：这些数据表明可以改进培训的领域，并且通过从此类错误中学习，我们可以减少将来发生的此类情况并提高患者安全性。
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