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Failure to obtain informed consent to surgery – £9,000 in compensation

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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