Hospitals are in a very particular position in relation to the psychological responses of individuals due to the illnesses or injuries of others even before one gets to the secondary victim issues. Facts: The claimant suffering from PTSD, uni student was at on the street of Glasgow, texting a friend. He can claim damages for personal injury as a secondary victim. However, he felt it right to record that he was very doubtful about the trial judge's conclusion in this regard. The details of this case are set out in Box 7. As we have already made clear, it is not sufficient to prove the existence of positive psychiatric illness or recognisable psychiatric harm. However, the Court of Appeal found that there was no such relationship between Novo and her daughter: or, to put it another way, she was not within their contemplation as someone who might suffer damage as a result of its actions. There is no doubt that, to some, this judgment seeks to draw absurd distinctions: since the shocking event did not take place until 3 weeks after the original tort, why should that delay be taken into account when considering whether the secondary victim shocked by that event has a claim? The claimant who is a "secondary victim" must perceive a "shocking event" with his own unaided senses, as an eye-witness to the event, or hearing the event in person, or viewing its "immediate aftermath". He proposes modifications to the compensatory regime for personal injuries to allow for concerns about a proliferation of claims. However, this is simply speculation by us. That obviously raises the question of what happens if (as is in reality highly likely in most cases) it is a complex aetiology which is the result of a combination of the shocking nature of events and of other factors as well. Bench Walk, p. 4. Had it been necessary to consider the case on this basis however, I would for my part have wanted to give further consideration to the question whether, in a case of adjustment disorder as opposed to PTSD, it is logically defensible to isolate one or two events from a larger continuum in an attempt to attract that liability which attaches to the perception of a tortiously caused horrifying event. To put it another way, perhaps more pithily: were the events here objectively of a sufficiently sudden and horrifying nature and, if they were, was it in fact that sudden and horrifying nature that caused the illness? In this event the claimant would recover damages if he or she can show that the sudden shock of the objectively shocking event made a material contribution to his or her psychiatric condition, even where it is impossible to disentangle the strands of the complex aetiology concerned. Charles Bagot is a barrister at Hardwicke. A maximum recoverable amount can be set in the It is simply playing with words' (cited in Law Commission 1998: para. In order to have a meritorious claim, the secondary victim must show that they are suffering from a recognised psychiatric disorder. Key Concepts: Terms in this set (16) Weddle v Glasgow City Council 2019. The A close tie of love and affection diagnose a baby’s hepatitis. It is indeed a conceptually confusing area and this distinction gives rise to real difficulties in practice. oyatekelioglu. In general, they are illnesses that are within the ICD.’ (our italics). It was played out over a period of 36 hours, which for her both at the time and as subsequently recollected was undoubtedly one drawn-out experience.'. 2 . has often been defined as a bystander and one outside the range of suffering from foreseeable physical harm. 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