Clinical negligence
Hospital negligence
Our client brought a claim on behalf of his Mother who fell out of her hospital bed and sustained a fracture to her hip and severe facial bruising. She sadly passed away just 4 months later.
Our client has said that he would be certain to recommend us to others because he found us informative, helpful and easy to communicate with.
Liability was admitted in full by the defendant hospital and our client recovered the sum of £40,000 by way of compensation.
Retained products of conception following caesarean section
Our client underwent a planned caesarean section operation on the 16th February 2009.
Following the operation she suffered with heavy and persistent bleeding and developed a womb infection, for which she underwent 3 courses of antibiotics. She was finally diagnosed as suffering from retained products of conception in her womb and had surgery under general anaesthetic to clean out the womb approximately 7 weeks later.
As a result of the infection, she was unable to breast feed and felt that she missed out on sharing that bond with her newborn baby.
Liability was admitted in full by the defendant hospital and our client recovered the sum of £5,000 by way of compensation.
Hospital negligent treatment claims
During the operation to remove varicose veins from our client’s left leg, the surgeon accidentally damaged a large vein, which had to be repaired immediately. As a result there was not enough time to actually treat the varicose veins.
Our client was admitted to the high dependency unit after her surgery and received intravenous infusion of heparin (an anti-coagulant) for 3 days.
Our client had a longer than planned stay in hospital and thereafter was required to receive injections daily for 6 weeks to minimise the risk of deep vein thrombosis. The injections were painful and the areas injected became very bruised and sore.
In the period immediately after the operation, the scar (which was twice as long as expected owing to the injury to the vein) was very tender. Our client has ongoing discomfort from the scar.
Our client still suffers from varicose veins which cause aching pains when our client stands for any period of time. In addition, our client is very conscious of the appearance of the varicose veins and needs to undergo further surgery to treat this.
It was alleged that the surgeon breached their duty of care to our client in that they injured the vein in error during varicose vein surgery.
Our client was successful in her clinical negligence claim and recovered the sum of £9,000 by way of compensation.
Inadequate hospital supervision for mental health patients
Our client brought a clinical negligence claim against a hospital regarding the standard of nursing care she received.
Our client underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy and she was returned to the ward on the same day.
Our client was on the same ward as a patient with mental health difficulties who was observed by the nursing staff to wander between beds on the ward, to approach patients and to take food and drink from other patients’ bedsides.
The patient with mental health difficulties was unaccompanied and unsupervised when she got into bed with our client and pressed on our client’s post-procedure abdominal wound.
Despite shouting for help and pressing her call buzzer repeatedly, at least 5 times, it took several minutes for the nurses to come to our client’s assistance, during which time the other patient’s full weight was on our client’s fresh abdominal wound.
Our client found her abdominal wound very painful after this, as painful as it had been on the first pre-operative day. She suffered from delayed healing and worse scarring in the area leant on by the other patient.
It was alleged that the hospital failed to meet our client’s right to a safe environment, privacy and dignity in that another patient was allowed to climb into her bed and press on her abdominal wound.
As a result of this, our client suffered the distress, pain and suffering of the patient pressing on her abdominal wound, a delayed discharge, prolonged pain and suffering from her surgical scar, complications with healing and the need for steri-strips and a worse outcome for the scarring.
Our client was successful in her clinical negligence claim and recovered the sum of £3,000 by way of compensation.
Prescription errors
Our client purchased chloramphenicol eye drops from her local pharmacy on the 3rd February 2010.
Unbeknownst to her, she was incorrectly given ear drops instead by the pharmacist. When she used the drops in her right eye that same day, she experienced a tremendous sharp pain which caused her to scream out. Our client’s right eye remained red and painful for over 2 weeks.
Although the defendant pharmacist argued that the use of the ear drop in the eye did not cause an injury to our client, the claim has settled in our client’s favour and she has recovered the sum of £1,750 by way of compensation.
Delayed diagnosis
Our client attended upon his GPs many times since 1999 onwards with recurrent problems in his right ear. He was repeatedly diagnosed as having an ear infection and prescribed anti-biotics.
Our client was finally referred to an ENT specialist at a hospital in July 2006 and he had his first appointment with the ENT Consultant on the 9th November 2006. The Consultant correctly diagnosed that our client was suffering from a right ear tumour. Our client subsequently underwent surgery to remove the tumour but has been left with permanent hearing and balance problems.
It was admitted by the defendants that our client should have been referred by February 2005 which would have led to earlier diagnosis and earlier surgery. Our client has recovered the sum of £10,000 by way of compensation.
Misdiagnosis
Our client suffered an accident on the 19th November 2006 whilst he was abroad and he suffered an injury to his right hand and had pain in his wrist.
Upon his return to the UK, he attended at the Accident & Emergency Department of the Defendant hospital on the 29th November 2006. He was x-rayed and told that he had suffered a sprain only.
Our client was recalled back to the Accident & Emergency Department of the hospital on the 11th December 2006, when he was informed that the original x-ray had been reviewed and did in fact show that our Client has broken his wrist. He was treated by way of a plaster cast and a follow up appointment was arranged for the 21st December 2006.
At this follow up appointment, our client was informed that not only had he broken his wrist, the ligaments had also been damaged and this had caused the bones to be displaced. Unfortunately surgery and treatment was unsuccessful and our client underwent a wrist fusion operation on the 20th September 2007.
Despite the Defendants maintaining a denial of liability, our client has recovered the sum of £35,000 by way of compensation.
Failure to obtain informed consent to surgery
Our client brought a clinical negligence claim against a hospital regarding the standard of care she received from an orthopaedic surgeon.
Our client suffered from bilateral bunions and attended an orthopaedic surgeon who offered her bunionectomies. The surgeon did not advise our client that a bunionectomy was a short term solution only and that her bunions would recur, requiring further surgery.
Our client underwent a bunionectomy to her left foot under general anaesthetic at the hospital and for 6 weeks she found mobilising on her left foot so painful that she needed assistance with personal care and household tasks and she was unable to work.
Our client’s bunionectomy wound became infected and antibiotics were prescribed on several occasions.
Our client’s left foot was still painful several months later and so she saw a podiatrist at a different hospital when she was advised that her earlier surgery had not been successful and that she still had a painful bunion.
The podiatrist advised our client that she needed to undergo further surgery by way of an osteotomy, which is a permanent solution to bunions. Our client underwent this procedure and was so pleased with the results that she re-attended the podiatrist and underwent an osteotomy to treat the bunions on her right foot.
It was alleged that the orthopaedic surgeon at the first hospital failed to accurately interpret the x-rays of our client’s feet and failed to obtain our client’s informed consent to a left sided bunionectomy in that he failed to advise our client that a bunionectomy is a short term solution only because it does not correct the cause of the bunions and failed to advise our client that it was an option for her to undergo an osteotomy which is a long term solution.
As a result of this, our client underwent an unnecessary operation under general anaesthetic and required further surgery.
Our client was successful in her clinical negligence claim and recovered the sum of £9,000 by way of compensation.
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