EXCLUSIVE

SCOTLAND'S former Olympic sprinter Cameron Sharp is suing the East Cumbria Health Authority for a seven-figure sum in damages following alleged negligence in the treatment of injuries, leaving him permanently impaired both physically and mentally.

More than 20 counts of negligence have been filed in a writ issued in the High Court in England, Mr Sharp's solicitor confirmed yesterday.

Mr Lyall Moodie said: ``We believe the standard of care exercised to Mr Sharp was not that which could reasonably have been expected from a competent surgical registrar.''

A medallist in European and Commonwealth championships, and a member of the British team at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Kilmarnock-born Mr Sharp sustained multiple injuries when the local authority vehicle he was driving struck a tree near his home in Lochmaben, Dumfries and Galloway, on October 10, 1991.

These included head injuries, lacerations of the face, scalp, knees, and chest, fracture of the right hip, foot fractures, and ruptured knee ligaments.

Mr Sharp was rated on admission to hospital at 13 on the Glasgow coma scale, which runs from zero to 15, the latter figure being normal. Though able to give his name, address, and home telephone number - both when cut free from the wreckage and upon admission to Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle - his condition deteriorated after he had undergone surgery.

A CT scan shortly after admission showed some bleeding in the brain, but despite this it is understood that no specialist advice was sought from the regional neurological centre in Newcastle.

Profuse arterial bleeding occurred during leg surgery, coagulation was inhibited and, in total, the patient received some 40 pints of transfused blood. Mrs Sharp and the athlete's parents feared for his life.

It is claimed that more than 14 hours elapsed before a second scan was conducted. This showed considerable deterioration and the patient was transfered by ambulance to the Newcastle neurosurgery unit, where he underwent brain surgery.

He spent more than six months in various hospitals before first being allowed home, then a further six months in rehabilitory units.

Mr Sharp, a leisure management executive with Annandale and Eskdale District Council at the time of the accident, is still undergoing daily physiotherapy in a bid to recover function of his left limbs.

Thanks to intensive treatment, much of it achieved by the persistence of his wife Carol, Mr Sharp can now walk indoors, though extremely slowly, for short distances.

``I feel that getting out of a wheelchair, and walking unaided indoors represents as great a personal triumph as the Commonwealth gold and European silver medals I won on the track,'' said Mr Sharp last night.

There remains severe spastic weakness in both his left leg and arm, which has no useful manual function. The right leg is also weak, displaying significant muscle wastage.

He has a facial palsy and impaired sensation on the left, complete sight loss on the left field of vision, significant language difficulty, and impaired cognitive and intellectual function. He has constant fatigue, and there is concern over his mood state. He has displayed suicidal tendencies, though not recently. He has also developed epilepsy.

Now 37, Mr Sharp is medically classified as significantly disabled, although his life-expectancy is not affected. At college he has acquired computing, communication, and keyboard skills, but medical opinion is that he will be unable to return to remunerative employment.

It was six months before he took his first step, a process which had to be re-learned.

A BBC documentary recorded Mr Sharp's progress with physiotherapists, alternating footage of him sprinting for Britain, exhaling explosively as he powered off the bend, with identical explosive gasps as he attempted to take his first steps.

Fears that his family might lose their home due to inability to maintain mortgage payments once out of work, prompted the Scottish Athletic Federation to launch an appeal which raised some #56,000, paying off the outstanding balance.

``We can never thank the sport, or the rehabilitation specialists enough for what they did,'' said Mrs Sharp last night. ``Clearly, if the legal action results in a substantial settlement, one priority will be to consult with the athletics authorities over an appropriate return of the money which was collected on our behalf.

``This could be the establishment of a fund for injured athletes, charity donation, or whatever. We would not wish to appear to have benefitted - if that is the appropriate word - by an unreasonable financial gain from Cameron's predicament.

``But we are only surviving now because I have gone back to full-time work as a teacher at Mary Erskine's/Stewart's Melville School, where our children Lynsey and Carly are educated, which in practical terms makes it possible to be together.''

Acknowledging the action, a spokesman for the health authority's solicitors said: ``Our clients disclaim responsibility and, under the circumstances, feel it is inappropriate to make any further response.''

Mr Tom Osborne, the solicitor instructed to pursue Mr Sharp's case in the English courts, said: ``We have just received the health authorities' written defence.''

Mr Osborne, a former chairman of brain injury charity Headway, whose firm specialises in litigation of this nature, expects a hearing towards the end of this year.

The action is complicated by the fact that the orthapaedic registrar mentioned in the writ, Mr Joe Bushi, has since died while out hill walking.

Athlete's next hurdle - Page 13