A WIDOWER fighting the NHS over his wife’s life-changing stroke has spoken of the devastating impact it has had on his family.

Tim Owers, a software developer from Aston, is claiming damages from Medway NHS Foundation Trust in Kent and the NHS Commissioning Board.

He said medics failed to diagnose and treat his wife Karen when she suffered a stroke on Mother’s Day 2010 while visiting Mr Owers’s parents in Kent.

Mr Owers claimed that medical staff at Medway Hospital said it was a migraine and told his wife to “go home and sleep it off”.

The stroke left Mrs Owers severely disabled and having to re-learn to talk.

She died in August last year.

Mr Owers, 48, said their son Jake, just nine at the time of the stroke, was worst affected.

He said: “His relationship with his mother completely changed and he wasn’t able to deal with it. He had counselling and we found out he thought his mum had died and this other body had replaced her. Everything about her was different, the way she spoke, the way she was and he couldn’t reconcile it was his mum.”

Mrs Owers had worked as a nurse in Kent before moving to Oxfordshire. When Jake was five she began helping out at Aston & Cote Primary School and then set her sights on becoming a teacher.

Mr Owers said: “At the time [of her stroke] Karen had gone back to college and was training to be a primary school teacher. She was due to qualify about a week after.

“She had her heart set on being a teacher for a long time and was never able to do it.”

The High Court case to decide on whether to award damages and compensation has been adjourned for two weeks.

The trust and the commissioning board dispute the timing of the onset of Mrs Owers’ symptoms and deny liability. Judge Mr Justice Stewart is expected to reserve his decision on Mr Owers’s claim until a later date.

Mr Owers’ barrister Judith Leach, from Oxford law firm Withy King, said: “I have been dealing with stroke cases for many years and this is the worst I have ever come across.

“This tragic episode has had a devastating impact on Mr Owers and their teenage son Jake and this continues to affect the whole family in so many ways.