Paralysed Marine sues MoD

[Martin the Martian]

Saw this on the local news last night. Sad as his plight is, I can't help comparing him to the guys who've come home from Iraq or Afghanistan with bits missing or unseen problems, particularly as their injuries really are not through any fault of their own.

Paralysed Marine Spencer Vaughan denies Baywatch dive - BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-32704019)

[Basil]

I'm very sorry for the guy but the report seems to suggest that it was a recreational accident of the sort to which we have all come close on numerous occasions.

[jetslut]

Concur there chaps. I have been 12 years in a wheelchair ever since a recreational accident left me paraplegic (thorax vertebrae lesion), this guy appears to be tetra or quadplegic (cervical vertinbrae lesion) judging by the photos, and my heart goes out to the bloke.
The main issue is that when faced with such challenges, you have to decide how you want to move on. Personally I adopted the 'crack-on' stance and although it's tough sometimes, I still get up at 05:00 daily to do a 40+ hour week, drive a car, fly a converted Warrior. Horses for courses I guess, but from the 200 plus similarly affected I know, I can count the number that do likewise on two hands and maybe a numb foot.

My tip lad, take a look at what's left, develop what's there, look people directly in the eye, and never dwell on what was. Eyes front mate, it's the only way forward.
JS

[SARF]

Outstanding

[Jumping_Jack]

It is all a question of what 'duty status' the young man was under. Being on an exped does not mean you are 'on duty' at all times, particularly when chilling at the beach in this case. I am involved with planning major overseas tours for a RAF sports team and you have to specify exactly when and when you are not 'on duty'. For example, you would be only regarded as 'On Duty' (for the MOD Compensation scheme) when you are actually taking part in the sport you are touring for. Any evening time, meals out, stand down days, etc you are unlikely to be covered.

[Pontius Navigator]

JJ, which is why, I believe, people are encouraged to take out travel insurance. I think the same off-duty rules apply to Dets as well although probably not to OP Dets.

[Jumping_Jack]

PN Indeed.................

[Hangarshuffle]

Did MOD duty of care fail? Was the beach given a risk assessment knowing it would be used for planned downtime? Who selected it for downtime for the RM? Modern life/modern times and modern lawyers probably on a no win no fee set up at 8 million its worth pursuing, and even though I don't like Royal Marines that much and their regular antics even less, I hope he wins.

[Wander00]

Old curmudgeon I may be but I have never read such bolleaux in my life. I am very sorry for the guy and I hope he gets great treatment but MOD responsibility, "Never heard anything like it in all my life!" I have sailing friend who did the same think after his first cross Atlantic trip after qualifying as a yacht skipper - about 30 years ago. Three years or so ago he became the first quadriplegic to sail"solo" across the pond, to the same bay where he had his accident. He has had a fulfilling life, a family and was for many years the leader of Sailability, the RYA's disabled sailing programme. But as he has always said, my error my accident. IMHO same applies here. Good luck to the guy, but sue the MOD, ridiculous.

[Trim Stab]

If he sues and wins, a consequence will be that the MOD will stop all Endex fun and games and confine everybody to barracks while under MOD care.

[Al R]

Hangershuffle,

Over there, see that? It's water. You can drown.

Do you think everyone who enters the mess should undergo weekly psychometric testing in order to identify nascent urges to stab themselves in the eye with a fork?

[dallas]

On the basis of what the article says it sounds like he voluntarily dived into the water and this was not connected to the core training he was undertaking. He wasn't instructed to; he wasn't seemingly ordered to.

Notwithstanding the need for universal exped insurance to cover mishaps, there has to be a line somewhere limiting MoD liability for ancilliary injury; something along the lines of an injury in a car crash en route to the training, which the subject could not have anticipated or prevented, is covered. Anything action unattributable to the core MoD-sponsored activity, such as this apparently unsupervised and voluntary dive, isn't.

I'm sorry for the marine, I really am, but servicemen can't be expected to live in an impervious bubble of liability cover for their every action under the umbrella of 'exped', and must bear some personal responsibility for their actions, as they would in normal life.

[Whenurhappy]

Yes, we seem to be losing sight of the need individual responsibility. It was refreshing when we lived in Germany that the locals take a healthy view of personal responsibility and personal liability - the result being that litigation for personal injury is almost unknown.

During the Kosovo campaign, one of my Gunners was injured in a rugby match with the French - which he had organised informally. Necessary provision had been made for injuries (a field ambulance and medic was on hand) and the gunner involved was, previously, a professional player. Roll on 10 years and I am contacted by the Treasury Solicitors to advise me that the MOD was being sued for negligence. However, I'd carefully documented the match, the injury and his subsequent treatment because of a sense of the impending litigation. This was delivered to his solicitors and they withdrew the case on the day of the hearing. Meanwhile, for 10 years, he'd worked as a firearms instructor for a Shire Police Force...

[FODPlod]

My mind is cast back to an incident during a stop-over in Portugal while our squadron of ships was en route to the Mediterranean. The weather was perfect, the sea was calm and the beautiful sandy beach sloped gently into the water.

Four or five young officers ran into the sea until waist-deep and then dived headlong into the water. One of them surfaced face down and unable to move; luckily he was spotted quickly. He had broken his neck and had to be casevac'd back to the UK from Faro on a C-130 after an excruciating ambulance journey on rough roads. He was no older than 23 and, I believe, rendered a quadraplegic thereafter. No amount of risk assessment could have forecast or prevented such a tragedy. There wasn't even a hidden sand bar.

[Tinribs]

Some years ago while on leave from a now defunct UK airline I reduced myself to a sorry state in a helicopter crash near Murmansk.

When released form the Russian hospital I made my way back to Heathrow expecting to board a bus to EMA, there was a taxi from my company totally unexpected and certainly undeserved.

The driver showed me her work docket
"collect Capt,,,,,,, from flight ..... do not come back without him".

The company then paid me my basic pay pluss 10% for six months while recovering. Some companies were pretty good in those days