October 5, 2025
Wilsher v Essex AHA [1987] UKHL 11
A premature baby was given excess oxygen due to a doctor's negligence and subsequently went blind. However, there were other potential innocent causes. The House of Lords held the plaintiff must prove causation on the balance of probabilities, not simply that negligence increased the risk. Facts The plaintiff, Martin Wilsher, was born three months prematurely, weighing only 1.2 kg. He required care in a special care baby unit and was placed on oxygen therapy. A junior doctor negligently inserted a catheter into a vein rather than an artery, leading to monitoring equipment providing falsely low readings of the arterial oxygen
