Scenario
Our client brought a claim against a hospital for unnecessary hip surgery and treatment. The claimant was a fit and active young man who unfortunately started to experience pain in his hips whilst running and playing football. After a number of inconclusive investigations, our client was referred to a local hospital for further investigation, where he eventually underwent surgery in May 2008. However, during this surgery, an additional, unplanned and completely unnecessary procedure was undertaken, which carried with it the risk of nerve damage. Unfortunately for our client, nerve damage materialised in the form of sciatic nerve damage, causing a temporary foot drop, significant pain and scarring within the hip region. As a result, he had to undergo further surgery to attempt to alleviate the nerve damage and pain, which were unfortunately unsuccessful.
Our client was left unable to walk long distances and had a permanent limp. He was in constant pain and unable to return to his active lifestyle. Before the surgery, our client worked as a manual worker, and as a result of the significant pain that he experienced following the surgery he was unable to stand for long periods making it impossible to return to this line of work. In spite of the difficult circumstances he was in, our client accordingly retrained, attending university during the clinical negligence proceedings. However, expert opinion was that he would only ever be able to undertake part-time sedentary work and would need to retire much sooner than the national average. The claimant also suffered from depression as a result of the significant pain that he had to endure on a daily basis.
What was our role?
A round table meeting took place in order to try to narrow the issues between the parties in advance of Trial and to attempt a settlement, which was ultimately achieved. Myself, Rankey and Counsel attended the round table meeting in April 2016, on behalf of the Claimant with the defendants’ solicitors and Counsel also present. The client was unable to travel to London to attend the meeting but was available by telephone. The extent of our client’s injuries, however, remained in dispute until the conclusion of the claim at this roundtable meeting, where the claim settled for £900,000, rather than at court at the listed date in May 2016.
How did we add value?
This was a highly complex case, which was heavily defended by the Defendant Trust for a number of years, and even when they eventually admitted breach of duty and partial causation, the full extent of causation remained in dispute. Despite this, we continued to support our client to ensure he was able to receive compensation to allow him to adapt his life to his new circumstances. The injuries sustained from the surgery had a significant impact on his social life, his ability to work and his day-to-day activities, so it was important for us to resolve the claim on his behalf. With the compensation he received our client has been able to adapt his home and purchase aids and equipment that will improve his quality of life. The money will also provide him with security in the event that he is not able to obtain alternative employment. Not only did we support our client through the case, but on the conclusion of the case we helped him set up a personal injury trust to protect his financial position with the assistance of our Trusts department.
Further Information
To find out more about how we can provide support for surgery negligence claims, please contact either Mr Rankeshwar Batta or Miss Victoria Fullilove or take a look at the general surgery claims part of our website.
