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Erb’s Palsy
Mrs M’s child was delivered by vaginal delivery and at the time of birth
developed shoulder dystocia. In trying to deliver the baby the doctor damaged
the brachial plexus nerve. This led to an injury known as “Erb’s Palsy”.
This was Mrs M’s third child. A vaginal delivery was planned despite there
being a number of risk factors for potential shoulder dystocia: antenatal
ultrasounds showed this was a large baby; Mrs M had diabetes; her second
child was a large baby and there had been difficulties delivering that
because of shoulder dystocia. There were also issues on the extent of force
used by the doctor when trying to deliver the baby following the shoulder
dystocia.
Baby M was left with a useless arm that required surgery and he was
permanently deformed. Matter settled. Damages awarded of £300,000.00 to
reflect general damages for loss and injury and an award for future care and
future loss of earnings.
Physiotherapy/Osteopathy
Mr S had an artificial hip. He started having some lower back pain and
decided to have treatment at the Defendant’s school of osteopathy. This
enabled him to get treatment at a discount rate as he was treated by a
student osteopathist, albiet acting under the supervision of a qualified
osteopathist (a tutor). Everyone was aware of his previous hip prosthesis.
Despite this during the treatment the student performed an inappropriate
manoeuvre that resulted in dislocation of the previous artificial hip.
Although they were able to reduce (replace) the dislocation in the hospital
this in turn resulted in ligament damage. As a result Mr S was off work for 6
months after which time he made a full recovery. Matter settled. Total
damages agreed at £17,500.00 including loss of earnings.
Orthopaedic
Mrs C went into the Defendant Trust for a hip replacement. During the
operation one of the surgical instruments used broke and a metal flange
became imbedded in the Claimant’s femur. The surgeon tried to extract the
metal flange however this resulted in a fractured femur and retained
metalwork in the leg. Damages agreed at £10,000.00 to reflect the injury and
an extended recovery period. The fracture was a clean uncomplicated fracture
that healed fairly quickly and there was a small loss of earnings.
Nursing
Mrs D went in for her first baby and during the labour was given an epidural
for pain relief. There was no negligence attached to the epidural however Mrs
D was left in the same position for approximately 2 to 3 hours possibly lying
on wet sheets following the insertion of the epidural. As a result she
developed scarring on her buttocks which further developed into a Grade 2
pressure sore requiring dressings for approximately 6 weeks. The scarring
developed a keloid appearance and continues to cause discomfort. There was no
loss of earnings.
Matter settled. Damages agreed at £7,000.00.
Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Case1
Miss W was complaining of abdominal pain and was referred by her GP to the
Consultant Gynaecologist. He considered she may have a retroverted uterus
(the uterus tilts backwards inside the pelvis rather than forwards). An
exploratory laparoscopy was undertaken and the retroverted uterus was
repositioned however at the same time the surgeon also performed an
appendicectomy for which Mrs W had not consented to as part of the general
consent process. Laboratory testing revealed the appendix was perfectly
normal.
As a result of the appendicectomy a fistula developed from the site of the
appendix stump into the small bowel resulting in infection. Mrs W required a
hemicolectomy and subsequent four operative procedures. She was left with
extensive scarring, was off work for a period of time and had psychological
damage. Expert reports were obtained from a Gynaecologist, a Consultant
Colorectal Surgeon and a Psychiatrist. Proceedings were issued but the matter
settled shortly prior to the trial date. Damages agreed at £80,000.00 shortly
before trial.
Case 2
Mrs A gave birth by a normal vaginal delivery. During the deliver she
sustained a third degree tear (a tear that also involves the anal sphincter).
However the doctor did not perform an adequate examination or inspection of
the tear and therefore wrongly concluded she only had a minor tear.
Consequently he only carried out superficial stitching to repair the tear.
Mrs A suffered from faecal incontinence following the delivery but thought
this was just a consequence of the birth and would improve with pelvic floor
exercises. However the incontinence did not improve and eventually her GP
referred her to a colorectal surgeon. He carried out a full examination and
diagnosed the true extent of the tear. Because of the delay in diagnosing the
full extent of the tear the repair surgery (called a “secondary repair”) was
much more difficult than would have been the case if carried out at the time
of the delivery (a “primary repair”) and meant Mrs A did not make as good a
recovery from this secondary repair.
She was left with an inability to defer defaecation for more than 10 minutes
problems on occasion with evacuating her bowel. Liability was contested by
the Defendant but a settlement was agreed shortly before trial for £55,000.
This included pain and suffering and loss of earnings.
Dental
Case 1
Ms M, aged 20, went to the Defendant Hospital Trust to have her wisdom tooth
extracted under general anaesthetic. The junior doctor undertaking the
procedure took out the wrong (adjacent) tooth. As a result, Ms M required a
prosthetic implant. Consideration was given to the fact that the implant
would probably need replacing approximately 5 times during Ms M’s lifetime.
No proceedings issued. Liability admitted. Matter settled. Damages agreed at
£10,500.00.
Case 2
Mrs M had private dental treatment known as a dental facelift. This is a
cosmetic procedure that involves a number of dental visits where the jaw is
widened (thereby lifting the cheekbones. This requires the insertion of built
up dentures. Mrs M had previously had a total dental clearance at a young
age.
At the last dental visit the final denture was not a correct fit and during
manoeuvring the denture in and out of Mrs M’s mouth we alleged that the
Defendant used excessive force and inappropriate manoeuvres. As a result of
the manoeuvring there was damage to the temporomandibular joints (“TMJ”). As
a result Mrs M suffered pain on eating, smiling and any general movement of
the jaw. Proceedings were issued but the matter settled soon after. Damages
agreed at £8,000.00. Consideration was given to the fact that Mrs M had a
separate and unrelated problem that was also causing her some pain and
therefore there were difficulties with issues of causation and to what extent
the alleged negligent treatment was causing the pain.
Accident & Emergency
Case 1
Mrs C was admitted as an emergency by ambulance to the Defendant Trust with
rigors (shaking), locked jaw, breathing difficulties and cyanosis (lack of
oxygen causing a blue tinge around nose and mouth). She was admitted to the
ward and the junior doctor on the ward took blood tests. The blood tests
showed an extremely low calcium level. Mrs C had a respiratory arrest and
died. An inquest was held. The post-mortem showed the cause of death to be a
consequence of hypocalcaemia (low calcium). The coroner recorded a verdict of
system failure as no one in the pathology laboratory or on the ward had
chased up the low calcium result. In addition there was a communication
failure between the various doctors involved. A case was brought under the
Fatal Accidents Act on behalf of the husband and two children of the deceased
and also a case on behalf of the estate under the Law Reform Act. The case on
behalf of the husband was for the loss of wife’s services and financial
dependency from her loss of earnings.
The claim settled without proceedings being issued. Damages awarded of
£100,000 including statutory bereavement award and funeral expenses.
Case 2
Mr D attended his local A&E department having fallen over and hurt his
hand and wrist. He was examined and told that it was just a sprain and to
take painkillers and that it would heal in time naturally.
After a month Mr D’s hand was still painful and so he returned to the
casualty department at that hospital. This time his hand and wrist were
x-rayed and the x-ray showed a fracture of the scaphoid bone in the wrist. Mr
D needed to have surgery to insert metal pins into the wrist as the fracture
would now not heal properly.
The claim was that the hospital, on Mr D’s initial visit should have either
x-rayed the wrist or at the very least put the wrist in a plaster cast and
carried out another x-ray in 2 weeks time. Scaphoid fractures are notorious
for not always being visible immediately but by two weeks any fracture would
have been visible.
Had the hospital acted accordingly Mr D would have made a full and uneventful
recovery within 6 weeks. Instead he had to have surgery and his wrist took
longer to heal and he had a permanent slight loss of function although this
did not materially affect his life. Case settled for £15,000 including some
loss of earnings.
Ophthalmology
Mrs C had a cataract in her right eye. She was booked into hospital for
removal of her intraocular lens and implant (replacement) with a new
(artificial) lens. It was the Claimant’s case that during this surgery an
introcular lens of the wrong power was implanted. This left her with a very
myopic (short sighted) eye and a huge difference between the relative
strength of each eye (called “anisometropia”). This difference was more than
3 dioptres and meant that when Mrs C tried to see with both eyes together her
brain was unable to fuse the images from each eye into one clear image.
She was therefore left with blurred vision and double vision when she used
both eyes and this, in turn, caused headaches. She needed further surgery and
although this helped it did not completely prevent the problem. Consequently
she had to wear glasses with a frosted right lens to prevent her looking
through that eye.
Damages of £17,500 were agreed after issue of proceedings and reflected Mrs
C’s age.
GP
Mr H attended his GP complaining of a mole on his arm that was red and
raised. His GP examined him and advised there was nothing to worry about.
Over the course of the next 12 months Mr H saw his GP on 3 further occasions
as the mole was becoming increasingly red and swollen and, indeed, by the
last occasion it had started to bleed on occasions.
Eventually the GP decided to remove the mole and although he sent it away to
the local hospital pathology laboratory for testing the GP told Mr H this was
as a matter of course and he did not expect there to be anything sinister.
However a week later the GP wrote to Mr H advising him that the laboratory
had confirmed the mole was in fact a malignant melanoma (skin cancer).
Mr H had to go to hospital for further testing that revealed by this time the
cancer had spread to his lymph nodes. Mr H required surgery to remove his
lymph nodes under his arms followed by chemotherapy. The case was that if the
GP had not delayed in either removing the mole or referring Mr H he would not
have needed the lymph node surgery or the chemotherapy. Further, Mr H’s
prospects of survival were now significantly reduced. Settlement of £75,000
agreed. This included a claim for “lost years” ie earnings that Mr H would
now lose because of his shortened life expectancy.
Cardiology
Mr B started suffering chest pains. He had a family history of early death
from cardiac arrest and was referred by his GP to his local hospital for ECG
testing. The hospital failed to correctly report Mr B’s ECG and advised that
his heart was clear. Consequently despite further episodes of chest pains Mr
B was instead treated for indigestion/gastric problems. Later that same year
Mr B collapsed and died of a cardiac arrest
Mrs B, his widow, brought a claim under the Fatal Accidents Act and Law
Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act for loss of dependency and other losses
arising from the death of her husband. The claim was that if the hospital had
properly interpreted the ECG Mr B would have had an angiogram that would have
revealed the true nature of the problem and would then have had either
angioplasty (insertion of a balloon into the affected cardiac arteries to
widen them and a stent to help keep the arteries open) or a cardiac bypass.
In turn this would have prevented his death.
The claim settled for £100,000 after issue of Court proceedings.
Surgery
Case 1
Mr C was admitted to Hospital with lower back pain and pyrexia (fever).
Despite investigations being carried, including abdominal CT scanning, the
presence of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (a balloon like swelling in the wall
of an artery) went undetected until it ruptured necessitating emergency,
life-saving surgery.
Mr C suffered ischaemic colitis (a lack of blood and therefore oxygen to the
large bowel) and faecal peritonitis leading to a permanent colostomy, a
non-functioning right kidney and a large incisional hernia. Mr C had already
retired so he had no loss of earnings and only a modest special damages claim
(he also had a reduced life expectancy in any event). Case settled for
£52,500 shortly before trial.
Case 2
Mr B had had a series of admissions to his local hospital complaining of
abdominal pain with associated diarrhoea and vomiting. Mr B had a history of
atherosclerosis (a build up of fatty plaque on the inside of the arteries)
and a provisional diagnosis of mesenteric ischaemia (a lack of blood and
therefore oxygen to the mesentery – the lining of the stomach and bowel) was
made. However despite this provisional diagnosis no further investigations
were carried out for mesenteric ischaemia by the hospital for 18 months until
Mr Brooks collapsed. He died 6 days later of congestive cardiac failure
secondary to mesenteric ischaemia.
Mrs B, his widow, brought a claim under the Fatal Accidents Act and Law
Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act for loss of dependency and other losses
arising from the death of her husband. Case settled for £40,000 and included
damages for the 18 months extreme abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhoea that
Mr B suffered prior to his death. The remainder of the claim represented a
limited dependency claim (Mr B was not working) together with bereavement
damages and interest.
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Contacts:
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Oxford:
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Tracy Norris-Evans
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01865 268632
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email
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Oxford: |
Richard Coleman |
01865 268631 |
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Oxford: |
Judith Leach |
01865 268609 |
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