Deaths and ruined lives

Luke Stubbles: Earlier this month, an inquest heard how 21-year-old Luke Stubbles was rushed to hospital by his parents after suffering a heart attack and was told to join the queue in the waiting room. He died within 60 minutes of his arrival at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, Berkshire.

Petrina Todryk: In April, Royal Surrey County Hospital paid £130,000 to the husband of a woman who died in childbirth after consultants failed to see her for nearly 10 hours.

The High Court heard how doctors failed to care properly for Petrina Todryk, 39, from Sanderstead, Surrey, who died five years ago after failing to regain consciousness following an anaesthetic for an emergency Caesarean section.

Joyce Roberts: The previous month, a woman who was left brain damaged and paralysed after a horrific medical blunder while she was expecting her third child won £2million in damages. Joyce Roberts' family fought a 10-year legal battle with their local NHS trust in North Wales in a bid to receive compensation, which is the largest of its kind for preeclampsia, a condition linked to high blood pressure.

Mrs Roberts, now 57, has been forced to live in care home confined to a wheelchair since she suffered two eclamptic fits in hospital during the latter stages of the pregnancy in 1987 and doctors failed to diagnose her condition.

Debra Law: Last June, Debra Law, 29, of Tarbert, Argyll, died after a trainee anaesthetist pumped oxygen into her stomach instead of her lungs during a routine operation to treat an ectopic pregnancy at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital The anaesthetist, Olugbeniga Ojo, was heavily criticised in an internal report, which also highlighted failures by senior staff.

Courtney Allen: In a separate case, Courtney Allen, 11, was starved of oxygen before she her birth at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage following a delay by doctors to carry out an emergency Caesarean section. The blunder left her severely handicapped.

After the hospital admitted liability for mismanaging her birth, Courtney was awarded £3 million in compensation at the High Court last year.

(1)Najiyah Hussein: Last year, Najiyah Hussein died after she was rushed to a London hospital because doctors reportedly gave her lethal "laughing gas" instead of oxygen. Najiyah suffered a heart attack and convulsions after doctors at the casualty department at Newham hospital allegedly gave her nitrous oxide. The hospital has launched in internal investigation into the incident.

Breast cancer: Breast cancer screening systems are poised to undergo a major shake-up after a shocking series of scandals. These included 11 cancer victims being wrongly given the all-clear by the West London Breast Screening Service based at Charing Cross Hospital. Six had become so ill that they were already being treated when the mistakes were discovered. One women was left untreated for two years after her notes were incorrectly filed.