£354,000 for nurse latex allergy

Alison Dugmore is disappointed her nursing career was ended

A nurse forced to abandon her career due to an allergy to latex has been awarded £354,000 compensation.

Alison Dugmore, 37, gave up nursing in 1997 after experiencing asthma, skin problems and anaphylactic attacks - the most severe form of allergy - after using hospital gloves.

Ms Dugmore, from Port Talbot, south Wales, won her case at the Appeal Court in London in November 2002.

She suffered severe allergic reactions when working at two Swansea hospitals.

She had problems at Morriston Hospital, Swansea, in December 1997, and also suffered from scratching and irritation due to latex gloves during her time at Singleton Hospital, between 1989 - 1997.

At the time of her allergic reaction at Morriston, her sensitivity to latex had been established and she had been given vinyl gloves.

She has money but she has no career, no possibility of working in the healthcare field again Dave Galligan, Unison

But it was enough for her to come into contact with colleagues wearing them, or even latex-laden dust, to trigger the reaction.

Ms Dugmore claimed at the time she would never be able to return to nursing unless hospitals became entirely latex-free environments.

The compensation claim was against Swansea NHS Trust. and Morriston NHS Trust, and £240,000 of her payout was for personal injury, loss of future earnings and loss of pension.

Adrenaline injection

The extra £114,000 represented "punitive interest" -- reflecting the fact that she had offered to settle the case with the NHS trusts earlier in the proceedings.

Outside Cardiff Civic Justice Centre, Mrs Dugmore said the money would "do nothing more than maintain some sort of security for myself and my children which my job should have done".

The mother-of-two began her career in auxiliary nursing at eighteen. She had been based in intensive care at Morriston and Singleton hospitals in Swansea when she was forced to abandon nursing.

"It has meant a lot to me over the years," she said.

Now she must always carry an adrenaline injection in case she comes into contact with latex.

"It is not easy to avoid it," she said.

"A lot of shops use balloons for promotions, it is in trainers and so many other things - it is endless."

Dave Galligan, Wales health spokesman for Mrs Dugmore's union, Unison, said:"This is no compensation for the fact it has been a long seven years for Alison fighting this.

"She has money but she has no career, no possibility of working in the healthcare field again. "